Mass Effect: Degradation (OUTDATED)
by Narcrotic
Summary: OUTDATED. DO NOT READ! DO NOT READ! DO NOT READ! NEW REMASTERED EDITION HAS BEEN POSTED.
1. Section 1

_**NOTE:NOTE:NOTE:! DO NOT READ THIS STORY. I WILL BE POSTING THE NEW ONE NEXT WEEK! **_

Mass Effect Degradation: The Value of Organic Life.

**CHAPTER 1**

**Date: 12/6/2183**

**Location: Aboard Alliance Vessel: SSV Normandy**

She dreams she is a human. She walks through the corridor into the dark lit streets looking beyond the wonders of her imaginary realm. She looks to her left and comes within reach of a doorway. She knocks on the door with her five fingered hand. Noticing the extra digits, she examined the fingers, moving each one carefully, savoring the unusual experience. She continues to knock, but still no one answers. She opens the door herself cautiously, hearing the uneasy creak of rusty hinges. Looking inside, she carefully steps into the warm corridor and looks around. She makes an unusual discovery. It is warm, but her breath shows as if the air is cold and fresh. She looks into a mirror and sees her human face. How beautiful it is. She envies the anatomy of the human female. The flowing brown hair, light hazel eyes, Small nose, pursing lips. She studies the look carefully, taking care not to get too dreary. She hears a whisper in her ears, calling her name.

"Tali" it says in a soothing tone. She is drawn by it, but the feeling of contempt settles within her. In an attempt to remove herself, she finds the urge to stay becoming too strong to resist.

"Tali" it says again, welcomingly. The voice entrances her, pulling her farther and farther into the house.

"Tali!" it says excitedly this time shaking her. She wakens.

"Come on and get out, we have a meeting in ten minutes." The voice said, sounding more clear and blunt then in her dream.

"Coming, just give me a second." She looks at her feet. They are covered in blankets. She wears only her loosely bound clothes and her breathing apparatus.

She took an entire room to herself. She adored the large space (Due to her previous living conditions in a 4x4 meter space for her entire family), but couldn't shake the feeling that she was taking too much. But she had too. There was not enough space in the Normandy to allow everyone a room, only the sleeping chambers…and they were contaminated with Human, Turian, Asari, and Krogan bacteria. Commander Shepard realized that if she did not have a room to herself, that she would have to stay inside of her suit the entire campaign against Saren and the Geth.

She took off her clothes and stepped into the shower. She quickly cleaned herself and dried off. She examined her environmental suit. This kept her alive, yet; she despised the idea she needed it to live. She wished she could be like the others, free of material that would filter her life for her. She then realized that none of her friends have seen her outside of her suit in person.

"What a shame." She said quietly to herself. She put on her undergarments and took one last look at her suit. She sighed. She began placing on the lower portion of the suit, and then put on her boots strapping a knife on her left ankle. She then strapped on the upper portion of her suit, fitting her gloves and her small armor plates. She looked into the mirror and felt proud of herself and the species she represented; A Quarian, working alongside others that defeated a common enemy that endangered the very existence of life. After her quick contemplation of egoistic thoughts, she grabbed her helmet and put it over her head. She now connected the hosing that was placed at the side panels of her mask behind her neck. A hiss told her the connection between her mask and filter was together. She was now disconnected from the outside world. She sighed and finished the last step to her suit. She draped the unique clothing her mother had given her around her body easily. The purple cloth wrapped around her easily; displaying the brilliant swirls of lines.

"Tali! Come on! You're going to be late!"

"I'm coming." She replied to the voice outside her door. The voice belonged to Ashley Williams, One of the many humans aboard the Normandy. Tali pressed a button on her suit. Upon doing so, she was injected with vitamins, minerals and energy needed to carry on her day; a nice alternative to the dull paste she generally consumed. She invented the injector last week in her spare time onto her arm. She hoped it could be another gift to present among the captain upon her return. She motioned the door to open and stepped into the stasis pod that separated her room from the Normandy's quarters.

**CHAPTER 2**

**Date: 12/6/2183**

**Location: Aboard Alliance Vessel: SSV Normandy**

Tali sat down in one of the many seats on the conference table. She looked across from her and saw that the Krogan sat uncomfortably in the human chair. She secretly chuckled to herself. Williams sat next to Tali.

"What took?" Williams asked curiously.

"I'm sorry; I had to put on my suit." Williams was still chewing on pieces of meat from her breakfast.

Behind Tali, Garrus Vakarian took his seat across from her and folded his arms leaning back in his chair.

"I can see you enjoyed the eggs, Garrus." Ashley said with a smirk.

"The eggs last week weren't green, Williams. That prank you pulled was uncalled for. How long is it going to be before you put something in there that'll kill me?" Garrus shook his head in annoyance trying to turn his attention elsewhere. The Krogan rolled his eyes between the two's squabble. Tali found Garrus' anger funny; although she realized the weight of the actual problem that could arise from Ashley's practical jokes.

"Where is Liara?" asked Tali.

"Hell if I know, and hell if I care-" Williams waved her hand in annoyance. "-She's probably in the lab with Doctor Chawkwas; like always?" As soon as Williams finished her sentence, the Asari entered the conference area and sat down next to Urdnot Wrex.

"Is there anything of importance that I may have missed during my absence?"

"No, nothing yet. We are waiting for Shepard." Tali said to the Asari.

Tali looked over at Garrus. He moved his mandibles and scratched them with his hands. He was not wearing his armor, but Turian crewman clothing. The shirt was a short long sleeve rolled up to the upper half of his arm; similar to that of the Alliance service fatigues; although the physiology between Human and Turian were very different.

Tali look down at her legs. She knew she was similar to a Human, but very different at the same time. Her feet only had two long clawed toes, and her hands only consisted of two fingers and one opposable thumb...not to mention the inward curve of Her humans' equivalent of a tibia. She wondered what it would be like with the extremities of a Human; with five toes and fingers and straight legs. Her thoughts were interrupted when Commander Shepard walked into the conference room. Everyone looked at him with pressing anticipation. No words escaped from his lips. After a moment of silence, he began to speak slowly.

"I don't have much to say, other than the fact that having you as my team was an honor, and couldn't have accomplished any of what I had to do without you." His eyes circled around the room looking at each one of his Friend's faces. When he stared towards Tali, she felt like he could see right through her mask. She blushed, but then felt absurd for feeling the way she did. She straightened up in her chair. Shepard then smiled, which then grew into a small laugh.

"I remember that time when Garrus had that sign stuck on his back saying 'I'm an ass'; and later found out that Williams did it."

"Wait, it was you that did that?" Garrus was astonished. "Should have known it would be you." The group burst in laughter. "Or that time when we played hide and seek where Garrus broke ass trying to catch me." Smiles spread across the lips of everyone. Tali nodded her head in satisfaction to compensate from her visor's obscurity. Shepard laughed some more.

"It makes me realize that regardless of what we do, we can accomplish so much. Hell, we saved the entire galaxy." Everyone's smiles receded into grin's with everyone reminiscing over their past with each other. Shepard s smile disappeared, as long with everyone else's.

"Then we lost Alenko." He closed his eyes and looked down. Tali looked over and could see Ashley's face ridden with guilt. Tali put her hand on her shoulder.

Ashley looked down supporting herself by placing her arms on her thighs. A tear streaked across her face.

"I wish he were here to see what we have accomplished. Kaidan was one of the best soldiers I have ever served with, and was honored to have him at my side." Silence took over the room, no one spoke, leaving their heads pointed towards their feet.

"I brought you here because you all know our campaign is complete. You may all return to your lives. Wrex and Garrus have asked to be dropped off at the citadel today. Liara is being accepted by the Asari hierarchy learning centers to teach about Prothean history and technology. Tali, has to return from her pilgrimage, and Williams, you said you were transferring out into a 332nd Marine expeditionary unit. Tali felt dismayed. After all they have gone through; they were splitting up and returning to what they used to do. Garrus was the only exception; he decided to leave C-Sec due to the restrictions of his job.

"You are all dismissed." Shepard said silently. Tali hesitated.

"Shepard. If I could have a word with you in private…"

"Of course Tali," Shepard said in a warm voice, "-I'll stay right here."

Everyone else left while the two waited quietly. When she saw that everyone was gone, she began to speak.

"Shepard …I…I wanted to thank you…For everything. The data, the equality… There is so much that I can't repay you for; your generosity towards me…I…umm…" She felt embarrassed with her choice of words and rung her hands together before rubbing the back of her neck. Shepard continued to stare at her intently. His face always brought comfort to her. She couldn't think; her emotions were taking the best of her professionalism…She got up and hugged him. Shepard wrapped his arms around her. She could feel the warmth and strength in his chest and arms...An unusual but comforting feeling...despite the evo-suit she wore. She didn't want to let go, but she reluctantly forced herself too.

"You did enough Tali by helping me defeat Saren. That's all I care about. Thank you." He placed his hand on her shoulder and left. She sighed with satisfaction and fell back into the chair. Leaning back she began to reminisce

**CHAPTER 3**

**Date: 9/9/2183**

**Location: Aboard Alliance Vessel: SSV Normandy**

"Commander...I don't know...It's just...I can't...I'm busy." She looked down and found herself playing with her hands again.

"Oh really?" Shepard said placing his arms over his chest and smiling. "I think your just making some kind of excuse." Tali stuttered.

"I'm serious...I'm busy." Tali put her hands down by her side and looked at the commander. A frown spread across Shepard's lips.

"Right...Well, you come up and join us whenever you feel the need okay?" Shepard tapped her on the arm lightly and left.

"Thank you." She turned around to face the console. Why did she lie? She had checked over the logistics of the duties given to her multiple times...Sometimes she wondered why she was so good at fixing things like this so fast. She looked up to see Adams busily tapping away at his console before facing Tali. His eyebrows shot up in worry.

"You okay Tali?" Adams stopped typing and diverged his full attention towards her. He liked Tali. One of the best Engineers he had ever seen. She didn't know much about the Normandy's engines when she first came here...but she sure as hell did now. She was better than most of the people under his command. She was valuable not only as a crew member, but just as a friend too. It was important to keep track of everyone's stability especially at these pressing times...although he never said that to anyone...

"I'm fine...I just got done doing the necessary calibrations that you gave me...anything else you want me to do?" Adams chuckled silently to himself. Damned efficient worker too. He looked at the diagnostics of the engine. She had finished her work with flying colors.

"Nope. You got pretty much everything done her for now Tali; why don't you head up to see what Shepard wants you to go to?" Adams thumbed the door. With a shrug Tali waved Adams good-bye and walked to the Elevator.

* * *

She laughed. This was amusing. Shepard strained against every muscle in his arm to move the immovable force that was held before him. Wrex could only chuckle as he watched Shepard's useless attempts to move his arm. 'Arm wrestling' they called it. Shepard added another hand and pulled. Still no budge. The human then got up and pulled with all his weight to move the large limb. Barely an inch! "Garrus..." Shepard strained "...help me out here..." Garrus laughed and grabbed Wrex's arm and heaved.

"A little unfair there guys..." Wrex growled before yanking his arm to the opposite direction. His arms slammed to the other side of the table. Wrex won. Again.

"I'll find a way damnit. Someday..." Shepard panted, beads of sweat forming on his brow. "...You just wait." Wrex nodded briefly, returning his gaze to his next victim.

"Come on Kaidan. Grow a second pair and face me." The lieutenants face drooped into a frown.

* * *

It was fun...but the fun abruptly stopped as Shepard was called by the council for pressing matters on Feros. Everyone had taken part of the meeting.

"We have been looking over the recent reports over the colony of Feros...We only know that Geth have attacked the Human colony...but for what reason?" The Asari paused and glanced at the Turian councilor before continuing. "You'll have to find out for yourself." Her hologram flickered, distorting the image and causing Shepard to lose focus

"Understood councilor." He nodded. The councilor to her right began to speak; His usual mocking tone beckoning for a punch to the face. "Remember why you are here Spectre: to eliminate Geth resistance and find reason why Saren finds any relevance in going to this Human colony." The Turian emphasized 'human' with the up most disgust.

"Yes councilor." Shepard replied gingerly, masking his animosity towards the Turian councilor.

"Very well Shepard. We will be waiting for your next report." The Asari concluded and the three holograms flickered leaving only silence in the Communications hub. Shepard leaned up against the railing and smirked quietly. "I hate that guy." He shook his head before standing up straight. Ashley got up and turned to face the others. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting some grub..." She left the room and the others followed suit. One-by-one, they left leaving only Shepard and Garrus.

"So what do you think Garrus?" Shepard tilted his head towards the Turian who was still seated quietly thinking to himself.

"Don't know. Hate guessing about the particulars of Geth activity and the mystery behind it...but...we have to get a lead on something right?" Garrus Shifted in his seat and looked up. He found Shepard looking up to the dull gray ceiling of the circular room.

"Yeah...Come on, let's go eat."

* * *

She tapped away at her omni-tool; her attempts to look busy becoming harder and harder. Why did she come with the others to eat? She couldn't even take part in the social gathering. She shook her head. Shepard misinterpreted what she was conveying.

"Something wrong?" Shepard asked after sipping on his drink. She stuttered before making up an excuse.

"Nothing too important...I just...forgot to check my...suits integrity." What a lame excuse! Shepard would never buy it! Suit integrity...she wanted to scoff at her idiocy. She found Shepard staring with a curious glance before replying. "You should get that checked out...doesn't sound safe." He turned back to his meal and continued to eat. Tali glanced at the others eating their meals, enjoying each other's company. She was the exception. The only one to...She looked down. She quietly got up and left.

* * *

She undressed herself once she got in her clean room and put on comfortable clothes. She sat at her desk and looked at the computer console. She looked at where the Normandy's next destination was: Feros; the Human colony founded by ExoGeni to research Prothean technology. She was sure that the only reason the Geth were attacking the area was to scavenge technology left by the Prothean people. She cris-crossed her legs in her seat.

"Access the latest files and news pertaining to the findings at Feros by the ExoGeni Corporation." Tali said to the computer. The computer responded.

_"Accessing… Files and events are listed below."_ Tali accessed the first option and began skimming over the facts.

_FEROS: FOUNDATIONS : / Enquiries accessed: 1 of 4,343_

_Feros is a world compiled of the remains of a once subliminal and peaceful metropolis of the Prothean Species that have vanished roughly 50,000 years ago. The metropolis is in a state of high-quality condition considering their vulnerability and inconclusive stability._

_In the year of 2178 ExoGeni founded this planet for exploration and research for the occupants that work for the corporation. Although the structures have been proved quite inquisitive, Research brings no relevant data that bear on Prothean technology. (Access Information pertaining to recent findings on Enquiry file 65A-42 for files on Architecture, Art, and Theorized Prothean Physiology.)_

"Computer, Find most recent event on Planet Feros." Tali said after reading the report.

_"Accessing Terminal…Query found."_

_CURRENT EVENTS : FEROS_

_Founder: ExoGeni Corporation_

_Feros has been recently attacked by Geth (For more information on Synthetic life forms, access Extranet Site of Synthetic Life forms) for unknown prerogatives. Contact was lost with ExoGeni Headquarters 64 hours ago. Casualties are assumed to be high._

_REPORT INTERUPTED_

_FURTHER ENQUIRIES?_

"Log off, computer." Tali said quietly.

_"Logging off."_ Tali leaned back in her chair. She inhaled deeply through her apparatus. The speaker next to the metal door of her room activated, allowing Shepard's voice to croak through.

"Hey, it's me, Shepard…"

"Commander? What do you need?"

"Well, I noticed you left, and I brought you something to eat."

"Thank you Commander, but you didn't need to…"

"Oh yeah..." Shepard uttered a small laugh. "About the Suit integrity thing...you should work better on your excuses." Shepard eased off with sarcasm. She cringed as she heard that. She felt like an idiot again. "...and don't worry Tali; the food is sterile...and compatible. Just thought you would want to eat something solid instead of that damned paste your in love with." Tali noticed the extra hints of sarcasm.

"…thank you." She mumbled; sincerity creeping into her voice.

"Okay Tali…good night."

"Yeah…good night Shepard." Tali said in a sigh. With that Shepard left the stasis room, and closed the door. The bacterial decontamination process initiated. After a 30 second wait, she opened the door, and found the steaming hot anomaly Shepard had placed on the metal grates. She assumed it was food left from the refreshments on the table in the mess hall. She quickly picked up the plate and looked at the food. Shepard had given her Quarian Cuisine. Where in the Galaxy he had gotten this food was a mystery too her, but all she could care about was eating it.

After consuming most of the food on the plate, she inhaled; the satisfying feeling of actual food in her stomach the commander had given her felt almost unnatural; and so was the chewing...

She put the plate next to her desk and sat down on her chair. After thinking about the food she ate, she got up and walked to the sink and cleaned her teeth, went to her bed, taking care to turn on her music OCD; compromised of hearing a Quarian ship's engine, crowds and creaks, and slowly fell asleep.

* * *

Quarian Cuisine is a scarcity even among the Flotilla. The consistency of a stable distribution of actual Meats and vegetables are extremely infrequent. Diets are mainly vegan due to the lack of ability to maintain livestock. Resources are strained enough; to stretch them just for the improvement over the quality of food was a necessary forfeit. Another sacrifice the Quarians had managed to overcome.


	2. Section 2

**Chapter 4**

**Date: 9/10/2183**

**Location: Planet Feros: Exogeni Corporation: Zhu's Hope**

Tali dodged the incoming fire and hid behind her best concealment option while thin beams of "bullets" arced above her. She looked to her left and saw Garrus hiding behind a crate, next to the Commander. Alenko and Williams were moving on the Geth's left flank, in hopes of countering their attack. As for the Asari and Krogan, she had no idea where they were. One of the many colonists slid into cover next to Tali.

"Shit! I was never trained for this!" He exclaimed, holding onto his shotgun bitterly. He stood up exposing himself and fired. He retreated back into cover.

"Your friends got any bright ideas?" He said trying to stare into the visor where he guessed her eyes were.

"Yes, two Soldiers are flanking the Geth-" Her sentence was interrupted by an explosion next to her, temporarily confusing both of them. "-and they should be drawing their attention any second now!" she exclaimed trying to yell over the gunfire.

She leaned against the rubble serving her as cover and looked forward. One of the colonists threw a grenade and fired two rounds from her pistol before being decapitated under the Geth's return fire. She collapsed onto the floor, shaking. She noticed the other colonist staring in shock.

"Oh no..."

"What?" Tali asked yelling. The colonist got up, but she yanked him back down.

"That's my sister!" He said pulling her arm off. Tears began to streak over his cheeks. "Cover me! I'm getting her!" As with that Tali got up and began firing with her assault rifle in a sweeping motion. Garrus saw the scene and got up with her and followed suit. Shepard joined. The colonist slid to his knees next to his sister. 3 gaping holes in her leg and lower portion of her stomach. He had one medi-gel pack left and he smeared the gel all over her wounds. He picked her up and ran back to his cover, resting her head against the rubble. Tali looked at the woman. The colonist continued to try and bandage the wound. Tali shook her head and said nothing. She was already dead. He had begun to cry while still bandaging her legs and stomach, and started shaking his hands, rendering them useless under his emotional turmoil. He ceased crying and hid his feelings. He picked up his shotgun and resumed his position next to Tali.

"I'm ready" He said quietly, barely enough for Tali to hear.

The Geth's gunfire was directed away from them now. The four got up from hiding and advanced towards the Geth. They made short work of them. Garrus, Shepard , and Tali regrouped with each other after a count of the casualties.

"Everyone okay?" Shepard asked.

"Yeah."

"Were okay" Tali said in a whisper. A shotgun blast boomed through the small stronghold. They all turned to the source of the sound. The colonist who had taken part against the attack with Tali and her allies had turned over one of the Geth soldiers and fired into its head.

**CHAPTER 5**

**Date: 12/6/2183**

**Location: Aboard Alliance Vessel: SSV Normandy**

Tali got up from her seat and looked around. The area around here was empty of people save herself. She walked up the stairs onto the main deck of the Normandy. This part of the ship was the opposite of the room downstairs. It contained most of the crew, as they preformed their daily tasks. Shepard took his place viewing the map of the galaxy, leaning against the rails. Joker came walking out of the pilot seat on his crutches.

"Excuse me Tali" He said with a smirk. Tali gave him room to continue to his destination.

"Where are you going?" Tali asked curiously.

"To take a piss, where else?"

"Oh. That's pleasant."

"Hey you asked."

"Could I ask you something?"

"Yeah sure, just hurry; I don't think Bessie can wait any longer."

"Who is Bessie?" Tali asked

"What do you want?" Joker said shaking his head, a grin creeping across his face.

"Never mind, I'll ask you when you get back."

"Suit yourself." As he said so, he waddled his way over to the elevator, mumbling to himself.

With nothing better to do, Tali began fiddling with her Omni-tool. The Normandy's VI began to speak through the Intercom.

"An unidentifiable object is gaining speed towards predetermined routes of destination. ETA 2 minutes until Collision: calculating alternative route."

"Uh…You said this object is unidentifiable?" Shepard looked uneasy.

"Yes Commander."

"Object is now turning towards the Planet Ulipses."

"Send Hailing frequencies." Shepard ordered.

"Sending…Object is unresponsive."

"Follow the Object. But take us in Undetected."

"Two more unidentifiable objects have been detected."

"Two more?"

"Status Update: 2,142 unidentifiable objects have been detected. Evasive maneuvers engaged. Brace for imminent collision." An explosion ruptured through the Normandy's hull.

The VI spoke through the intercom. "Mass effect Gravitational Fields offline." The inertia Changed. The ship began to shake under the constant change in direction. Tali grabbed onto the railing.

So much for a peaceful day.

* * *

"Where the fuck is Joker?" Shepard screamed holding onto the railing as the ship changed yet to another direction. The VI responded flatly.

"Flight Lieutenant Moreau is inside the Resting facility.

"Aw shit! Shit! Shit!" Joker yelled taking care to hold onto the toilet with all his might. Getting stuck inside a toilet stall with your pants down, trying not to break bones in the process was difficult work, especially when the Normandy is taking Maneuvers to knock off your aim. There was no way he could get up and out of this one. Some one had to take his place. He strapped himself down on the toilet and waited. The crew is going to chew on his ass for weeks for this.

* * *

"We can't wait for Joker; we need to get out of this now!" Yelled Pressly, The navigator of the Normandy. The VI responded to the distress

"Finding alternative route of escape. Probability of success: 23 percent. Kinetic barriers are down to 46 percent. Attempting route now." Tali felt sick due to the constant change in inertia. Tali began to wonder where the others were; knowing that they were completely oblivious to what was going on. Tali Struggled up toward the pilot area and managed to look outside of the small windows. She was awestruck by the sheer number of what looked like to be…Meteors…something wasn't right. Meteors don't change velocity and direction by themselves. Something hit the hull again. The VI spoke through the intercom calmly.

"Sensor's have been destroyed. Auto-Pilot is Unresponsive; Evasive Maneuvers have been disengaged. Hull Integrity exposed. Be advised: Destruction is imminent: ABANDON THE NORMANDY." Everyone realized that the VI was now blind to the outside. They were doomed unless if someone started flying. Tali was the closest one to the pilot controls. She second guessed herself and jumped into the seat.

"I hope I remember what the Flight Lieutenant taught me. She disengaged the Auto pilot and typed in a series of commands. The Engines flared to life and stressed under the constant changing of flight paths. Tali got very hot inside her suit; the heat was unbearable, but she continued, checking and monitoring systems. They were hit again.

The VI spoke

"Hull breach on level 2 sector A/3: sealing room." That was her room. But this was no time to feel sorry for herself.

Shepard had made his way to the pilot room and sat next to Tali in the Co-Pilot seat.

"I'll monitor, you pay attention to flying!" He yelled trying to scream over the voices and screeching metal. She said nothing and continued to fly. They were hit again. The force of the impact shoved Shepard's head into the console, knocking him out. Blood began to ooze from his head. She looked at Commander Shepard in scock. She clicked on the intercom

"Get a doctor over here! The commander is hurt!" She said in desperation.

"Venting atmosphere. Losing pressure. Life support is failing." The VI said. This was stupid. She changed the direction of the Normandy towards the flow of asteroid like objects. These five minutes felt like an hour. Most of the asteroids were moving in one general direction, towards the planet they were passing: Ulipses. Two Alliance marines ran into the room and grabbed the commander. Tali looked over and saw the damage to his face; a broken nose. She winced at what Shepard looked like. She felt like she was responsible for that and it hurt. She diverted her attention back to flying the large ship. She made it through the atmosphere. Now was the hard part.

_Landing._

* * *

The worst was over. She managed to bring the Frigate to the land with most of the ship intact. She knew that Shepard s Superiors were not going to like this. At Least the drive core was unharmed during the escape. The frigate was not suspended up above the ground, but rather laying on it. She was outside standing next to Joker, who was sitting on a rock. Luckily the planet they were on was suitable for life, but far beyond where colonization of any species took place. They were stranded. The Alliance personnel were all suited up in their armor and checking the perimeter for hostiles. Patrols were set up around the Ship to ensure the safety of the injured and the ship itself. Tali looked behind her. The Normandy…now compiled into a badly injured wreck. It looked worse than the ships back on the Flotilla. Much worse. However, she knew from the look of it though that the damage was repairable. But it would not be cheap. It looked as if the repairs of the ship would cost just as much as the ship itself…Maybe even more. She felt extremely guilty. She focused her attention towards something else. Shepard, Yes Shepard. She wondered if he was okay. She climbed up towards the entrance of the ship, making room for the soldiers passing by her. Her stance was awkward like everyone else on the ship; it was tilted to a degree where everyone leaned to the side of the ship to retain their balance. Garrus walked by her.

"Garrus, have you seen Shepard?"

"He doesn't look good. Actually he looks pretty bad. I've got other stuff to get taken care of." But before he left he looked at her "You did a good job Tali." And with that he left. She felt relieved for what The Turian had said. She walked down the stairs awkwardly and went into the medical room. She saw Shepard standing up, leaning up against the bed. His back was facing her.

"Commander?" She displayed guilt through emoting with her body. He turned around. He had a bandage across his forehead and nose.

"Oh, Tali." He said wincing in pain.

"I'm sorry…I…" She was interrupted when Shepard raised his hand.

"It's okay Tali, You did good. Don't worry about the ship."

"But, commander, I wrecked it."

"Not like you had a choice. Plus, Joker was sitting on his ass on a toilet the entire time while you were flying." He smiled. The pain killers were taking effect now. She didn't know how he did it, but he always found the light in the darkest times, the happiness in the glum, and the laughter inside pain. He got up, but lost his balance. Tali reacted quickly by grabbing him before he fell.

"Thanks Tali, I think Chawkwas gave me something I shouldn't have."

* * *

Tali looked through Garrus' sniper rifle scope, checking the landscape for anything unusual. She had Garrus, Ashley and two other Alliance marines with her. Prying her attention from the scope, she looked up at the sky. The small asteroids continued to fall down from space. They disappeared behind the huge mountains in the far distance. The landscape was lush with simple plant forms and patches of brown dirt.

"Here Garrus, I'm done looking." She handed the rifle back to Garrus.

"Well, nothing too weird like I said...with the exception of those...things." He pointed up to the sky where the asteroids fell.

"Yeah..." Tali trailed off as she watched the Mako approach the small group. The vehicle slowed to a stop and whined in satisfaction at the chance to rest its engine. The hatch opened on the side, with 3 marines exiting out of the cramped space.

"Everyone get in or on top, we need to get to the bottom of this. Those shit head whatevers ruined my day. I intend to make them pay." A marine exclaimed waving his gun in the air. A few chuckles escaped from the others. Garrus and the two marines accompanying them jumped on top of the Mako.

"I needed the breeze anyways." Garrus said sitting down and grabbing a handle to support himself. The Marines nodded in unison. Ashley went inside, and the three that brought the Mako reentered the vehicle. Tali climbed up on the top of the Mako sitting next to Garrus.

"Me too."


	3. Section 3

**CHAPTER 6**

**Date: 12/6/2183**

**Location: Planet Ulipses**

Tali looked above the horizon. The view was a spectacle. The meteors didn't crash down into the ground, but more a less went through it.

"What the hell…" Sergeant Pete Stacker muttered, one of the marines accompanying her on the mission.

"Sergeant, Orders?" Corporal David Wallace asked in disbelief.

"Uh…I don't know what to order right now." Stacker said under his breath.

Garrus looked through the scope on his rifle. The marines stood behind Garrus, awestruck by the view.

"There isn't much we can really do…other than assume that this is dangerous." Tali took a half a step backward to rest her left foot.

"Tali is right-"Garrus said approvingly. "For all we know, this is dangerous."

"Shouldn't we analyze the situation a little more before we jump to conclusions?" Corporal Max Heathers shyly folded the Rifle in her hands.

"We already analyzed the situation, Corporal. We got nothing. All we can go on for now are assumptions. Remember, always assume the worst. Thinking otherwise is dangerous." Stacker unwillingly stood up and faced the young Corporal. Tali was familiar with the statement: Assume the worst. Assuming otherwise was foolish among her people.

"Well, we need to head back and report to the Commander. The sooner we get off this damned rock the better." Williams looked at the fellow comrades, a dismayed look plastered across her features. Garrus, Tali, Stacker and Wallace Jumped back on top of the Mako, waiting for the others to enter inside the vehicle.

Garrus placed his hand on his Communication device.

"Williams, if you don't mind, drive a little more carefully. We almost fell off and died."

"Whatever."

* * *

Tali felt the wind hitting against her suit. She wished she could feel the wind on her skin and hair...the feeling she never experienced was so close...yet...so far away.

She regretted going on one last assignment with Shepard, but at the same time she didn't. She didn't regret the mission until now, being stranded on some planet that hardly anyone knew about far from any civilization...but even then, it meant more time with...Wallace tapped her shoulder. She turned around to face him.

"Hey, uh... it's Tali right? Well, not to be rude or anything; but, everyone wants to know what you look like under that mask of yours." He said, wincing as if he looked like he was going to be bit by a dog.

"Well…I look very similar to you humans." Tali said, bracing herself as the Mako climbed over a hill.

"Oh, well I guessed that by the way you look now; but what about your face? What color is your skin? Do you have ears like us? Everyone wants to know." He released his building tension.

She was being bombarded by questions. She had no idea that the crew on the ship were that curious about the way she looked. In a way, she happy to hear she was a center of attention to the other soldiers onboard the Normandy. She wondered if Shepard wanted to know too.

"Why are you so curious?" She asked with innocence in her voice.

"Well, I just am, just like the others."

"Where do I start?"

"Anywhere." The marine looked enthusiastic.

"My hair is black. My eyes have are silver. Yes I have ears. Uh…" She was cut off by Wallace.

"What color is your skin?"

"Yes that…It isn't a high rich color like the pigments you humans have. We also have several varying colors of skin pigment; but all of them are faded dull colors." She said with a hint of disappointment.

"Oh. Well, you still didn't answer my question about your skin color."

"My skin color is hard to explain. It's a dark color, but it's faded. It's a mix between dark blue, purple, and gray."

Wallace looked surprised by the answer. She noticed the familiar expression.

"Were you expecting me to have a different color of skin?" She asked, a little worried the attention that she was receiving would disappear upon telling them what she looked like.

"No, not at all. All of our theories about what you looked like were completely different compared to what you just described."

She cocked her head side ways. "And what were your theories?"

"Uh…that you looked plain purple, or pink…or some kind of bright color. But then we argued that seeing one of your Males a bright pink or purple color just seemed wrong. So we never reached an agreement."

"Oh, well, it was a good guess." She hid the feeling of annoyance. How could you think Quarians looked pink?

"What other skin colors do your people have?" Wallace asked finding the subject even more interesting.

"Pretty much any combination of the three colors I have including black. Some sides of color are stronger than the others." She said as the Mako made a rather sharp left turn. Tali, Garrus and the marines braced and temporarily lost their balance. Garrus growled and jammed his thumb into his Communication device.

"Ashley! We almost fell off again!"

"Sorry, I sneezed."

Garrus shook his head. Tali could see how impatient Garrus was with Williams's attitude. She understood how Garrus felt about Williams.

* * *

They arrived at the Normandy. Tali looked away from the ship. She still felt guilty for destroying it. The reassurance from others did little to help. It almost felt embarrassing to have wrecked such a fine ship. She climbed up to the entrance way and walked inside.

Tali walked into Shepard's quarters and found him inside.

Shepard sat on his bed with his computer. Sounds escaped from his machine as he tapped away at the keyboard. He looked focused on the monitor.

"Shepard?" Tali asked. The Commander's gaze did not leave the screen.

"Yes Tali?"

"What are you doing?"

"Playing some game. I have nothing else to do right now." As soon as he had said that, a beep and a tone lowering in pitch escaped the machine, ending the game.

"I died… What's up Tali? What do you need?"

"Oh, nothing. I just came to check up on you..." She said. That didn't come out right. "...To see if your nose was okay." She added.

Shepard put his computer down next to his lap.

"I appreciate that. I'm sorry this happened…If it weren't for me asking all of you guys to come along with me to eliminate pockets of Geth resistance, then we wouldn't be in this mess."

Tali Intervened "But then we wouldn't be here together." That didn't come out right once again...She let it slide.

"I guess, but still." He said with shame in his voice. It sounded almost as if he was ashamed.

"Well, let's try to make the best of it." Tali said, her voice trailing off. They sat in silence for two minutes. A very awkward two minutes.

"The meteors-" she said finally. "-They are…well...They are falling through the ground." Shepard had looked as if he had been hit by a rebar.

"What?"

"The meteors...They are falling through the ground." She said again. They sat in silence again. After an elapse of another two minutes Shepard finally spoke.

"Meteors falling _through _the ground...What do you suggest we do?" He said turning to face Tali. Tali was shocked. He was turning to her for advice. This was her chance to impress. A chance for what? To impress? What am I talking about? I should have stopped at advice. She stood up straighter.

"I'm assuming that whatever is happening is dangerous. Without further speculation; there isn't much we can really base off of. My judgement is the sooner we get off this planet, the better." Her answer came seven seconds afterwards. She focused on Shepard's curious facial feature.

"You okay Tali? It's hard to read you when I can't see your expressions."

She mentally evaluated herself and realized how long she had been awake.

"I'm okay…just…tired. Really tired."

"You have been awake sometime. What? Almost 36 hours? It was about your time to get some sleep when we got bombarded; then you were out patrolling the perimeter for most of today."

"Yeah, but, I... I have to be responsible for what I've done to your ship, and your nose." She regretted saying the last part. He pointed to his face.

"This wasn't your fault Tali. Look, get some sleep. You are stressing yourself too much."

"I have nowhere to sleep." She said, remembering that her room was destroyed.

"You can sleep here." He said patting his sheets. Sleep sounded good to her. She was too tired to think of it as an invitation. She collapsed on the bed and fell asleep.

**CHAPTER 7**

**Date: 12/7/2183**

**Location: Planet Ulipses**

She woke up and saw that she was face down on the bed. The same position she was in when she collapsed on the bed seven hours ago. She needed to get up and work but she was still too tired. A few more minutes of sleep was okay. She readjusted herself and took in slow shallow breathes, bringing her closer into a deep slumber.

She dreams she is human. She walks, her bare feet touching the cold surface of stone, surrounded by dark dull colored sand. She is alone save the icy shores of a dull gray beach and sky. She sits down on the large rock incased in loose sand, inhaling the chilly air. She closes her eyes and embraces the chills of wind and moisture. She looked to her right, following the contours of the shoreline to a cliff in the distance. The large steep mountain displayed a waterfall, the top shrouded with pine trees, the colors a sickly boring green. She found the ambiance peaceful. Tranquil. Shepard sat down next to her. She felt the heat radiate from his body and enter her own. It was satisfying. They both looked off toward the shoreline, looking as the water climbed to the sandy beach, only to recede back into the icy body of the ocean.

"Tali…" Shepard said. She found that she was holding his arm.

"Tali…" he said again.

She woke from her slumber. She was holding onto Shepard arm as if she was holding a security blanket. She let go instantly.

"Sorry…" Tali said in a whisper, wishing she could itch her eyes.

"That's okay. You slept for a good nine hours. Feel like you can get back on your feet?"

"Yeah…" She said slowly and quietly. She didn't move from her spot on the bed. The commander sat down next to her.

"You really are out of it." He said whispering. She replied with a groan.

He was tired too. He had gone to go and see the asteroids himself. He was not happy with what he saw. He hadn't even eaten ever since they crashed. He wasn't hungry, the last thing he wanted to do was eat. His body was too exhausted. He grabbed a small syringe from his belt on his armor and stuck it into his arm; enough vitamins, minerals, and energy to carry on for a few hours. Seeing that Tali was still sleeping on his bed, he hesitated if he should sleep here at all. He climbed on his bed and lay down next to her. It was after all his room and his bed. He grabbed his pillow and buried his head into it falling asleep.

Tali woke up and opened her eyes slowly. She saw Shepard Sleeping with his head encased in his pillow. She smiled and found the sight rather amusing to look at. She saw the deck of cards on Shepard s nightstand. An old human game made during the times when they were still stuck on their home planet. The commander had brought them out during their time they were traveling towards Noveria, to track down Matriarch Benezia, a powerful Asari reaching the final stages of her lifetime.

**Chapter 8**

**Date: 9/21/2183**

**Location: aboard Alliance ship: SSV Normandy**

Tali dragged a box to the table and sat on it. She joined the others in the small commune.

"Well, we got a load of time to kill, so we might as well do something fun to pass the time." Shepard said pulling out a deck of cards from his pocket.

"What are we playing commander?" Garrus asked inquisitively.

"You're going to find out." Shepard said hastily, shuffling the deck and passing a card to everyone sitting out on the table. The Requisition officer Marcus Bolin joined them along with two other marines; Pete Stacker, and Max Heathers.

Tali stuck the card on her visor of where her forehead was. She found the game very amusing and fun. The others were sticking their card on their heads too, laughing at each other as they did so.

"Ha Williams, you don't stand a chance!" Shepard laughed as he saw her card was a three."

"Neither do you skipper!" She said giggling uncontrollably upon the sight that he held a 2 to his forehead. Commander Shepard took a sip from his drink.

"Okay, you guys in or out?" Shepard glanced at the others as he finished his soda. A series of voices replied with ins or outs; placing their cards on the table. The laughs continued. Tali had won several rounds, and Shepard commented on how good she was with luck.

After what seemed like hours of various card playing activities, they were finally 15 minutes out before hitting the Mass Relay. The laughter died down quickly. Everyone began preparing their equipment hoping that their visit on Noveria would be a peaceful one.

Tali's equipment was already prepared the night before. But she checked twice to make sure; an old habit for obvious reasons. She walked up to the conference table and saw Shepard drinking a can of liquid. She took her seat across from him.

"What are you drinking?" She asked curiously.

"It's soda. Ginger ale. I like it."

"I'm sure you do…what does it taste like?"

"Well, it tingles in your mouth because of the CO2 they place in it."

"They place a gas inside the drink?" She was surprised. "Is it fermented?"

"Nope; placed in there artificially."

"Wow, that really neat. Never heard of that."

"Yeah, it's good."

"I wish I could try some."

"Well, maybe you can."

"I doubt it Shepard."

"Well, maybe we can research it. I know that some stuff won't harm you." Shepard scratched his head as if he was trying to remember something.

The intercom squawked.

"Commander, 5 minutes out. We will be on Noveria in 2 hours."

"Thanks Joker, Give me a heads up if anything happens."

"You got it." He returned his gaze onto Tali.

"Let's go research it."

* * *

Shepard looked through his computer and looked up Quarian physiology on the extranet. He scratched his chin as interesting facts compiled onto the screen.

Tali sat in a chair across from him, fiddling with a can from one of his sodas.

"Well, the gas won't harm you. Neither will the ingredients…I guess it's safe to say that you can drink some. But just to make sure, you can check in with Chawkwas when you're done."

"Shouldn't we tell her before we do this?"

"You'll be just fine. I'll go tell her now; you go to your room and enjoy it."

"Thanks. I'm going to go and try it now."

She walked out of the commander's room and towards the elevator and pressed the button and waited for the elevator to come to get her. She tapped her foot to a song she remembered before leaving the flotilla. She became a little impatient with the elevator's speed. She contemplated for all of about five seconds before deciding that fiddling with the elevator to make it faster was a bad idea. The elevator finally came up to pick up Tali. As the door opened Wrex and Garrus Walked out and greeted her.

"Hey Tali." Garrus said before stopping and looking at what was in her hand.

"Uh…okay. I'm sure you researched that to know it's safe to drink." Garrus pointed towards the can before leaving to go upstairs. Wrex looked at Tali.

"Aren't you daring?" Wrex said sarcastically before leaving to go off and find a snack. She flicked her fingers on her visor; an expression similar to the 'rolling of eyes' humans displayed when dealing with a similar situation. She walked into the elevator and pressed a button. The doors closed and the elevator began its decent. It stopped in-between the hanger bay and upper decks. This area was for cargo storage of food, maintenance, and resting facilities, along with a medical clean room for surgery. That room had been replaced for Tali to live in now. Needless to say, this did not render the room unusable; as the room remained a clean one; literally.

She walked out of the elevator and to her room. She took another look at the can. She walked into the decontamination pod and waited for it to rid the area of bacteria. After the process had finished, she took off her helmet and rubbed her short hair out of its cramped quarters. She opened the can and slowly took a swig. It was savoring. Tingly and refreshing. She waited for a moment to feel an allergic reaction. Nothing. She smiled. She took another sip and put the can down. She pressed a button on the wall opening up a communication channel to Shepard's room.

"Yes Tali?" Shepard's voice said through the speaker.

"It's delicious. Thank you." Is all she could say to him.

"Glad you like it. I'll make sure to buy more next time we resupply okay?"

"Thank you. I appreciate it."

"No problem. No if you'll excuse me, it seems the council is pressing some concern on me about Noveria. Enjoy the Soda Tali. I have to go." And with that he terminated the channel, ending the transmission. She took another sip from her soda and walked to her computer. She rubbed her eyes with her gloved hand.

"Computer… Access Quarian Physiology. What types of Levo-protein foods; preferably Human foods, can I eat without harming me?" She said with interest. "Accessing information… Query found."


	4. Section 4

**Chapter 9**

**9/21/2183**

**Location: Noveria: Peak 15 Research complex**

"Okay, we need to stop." Shepard stopped, inhaling slowly to not hurt his cold lungs. Shepard, Tali, and Garrus stopped in the middle of a hallway. Shepard leaned up against the wall and exhaled.

"You okay? You look a little beat up." Garrus patted him up against the shoulder. Tali took point by watching the corner of the hallway with her assault rifle.

"Yeah… Just give me a minute. That last fight took something out of me."

"It would have been best if we had brought everyone along instead of leaving them back to help the scientists." Tali added.

In their last engagement, they had encountered the Rachni. They were an extinct species; or...so they thought. Shepard got up from his resting position and pulled out his assault rifle from his back.

"Okay, let's keep moving." The commander said with new profound energy.

They continued down the cold broken corridor. The opened the door at the end of the hallway and quietly made there way into the room unseen. There were two Rachni squabbling over something. Tali peeked around her cover. She was speechless in overwhelming fear and anger. The two were fighting a mangled body of what seemed to look like a human. The blood and organs had melted some of the ice and snow that littered the metal floor. The torso still had one arm and a head attached. The body was still moving and alive. She held back tears and immediately took aim towards the human's head and fired.

It exploded, leaving the mangled body limp. "Go in peace." She said quietly. She glared at her two new targets. The Rachni turned around and charged.

"You bastards." She muttered.

Tali; her rage still fresh, left from her cover and walked towards the two with her rifle trained on one of the aliens and fired. The Rachni was cut down in the surge of bullets and died; it was lucky compared to what she had planned to do to her next victim. She crouched down turning to the other and fired a single round into its chest. As it collapsed she dropped her rifle and grabbed her knife from her boot and thrust it high into the air. The Rachni looked up towards her, its eyes trained on the knife. She brought the knife down quickly forcing it through the tough skin. The beast screamed as she repeated the process repeatedly. She sliced off its appendages, covering her arms in blood. In her wild stabbing, her knife got stuck in the flesh and she let go of it. With her free hand she clutched the neck of the monster and smashed her fist into its face caving in its skull. The Rachni's scream ceased leaving the Quarian breathing heavily. She put her foot on the body for leverage and ripped the knife out, placing it back into her sheath.

Her companions stared in disbelief. She looked at them and picked up her rifle and walked past the two.

The Post-Trauma was going to settle in soon, and Tali knew it.

* * *

Tali was silent for the rest of the mission. She felt…She didn't know what she felt like...Her feelings contradicted each other. The emotions were excruciatingly painful. She knew she said that she wouldn't take drugs; but she overruled her last decision. She grabbed the syringe shooter and placed it on her arm. She pulled the trigger and injected the drugs to calm herself down. She felt pathetic for having to use drugs to cope with her trauma. A banging was heard over on her door.

"Tali…I wanted to talk to you."

It was Shepard's voice on the other side of the door. She still had her suit on. She opened the door to her room and she stood with one hand holding the syringe shooter and the other holding onto her other arm. She felt exposed and weak and put her hands up to her mask. Shepard drew himself close and hugged her tightly. He rubbed her back. She found the gesture comforting. He quietly held her during her emotional turmoil. Her crying slowly receded to slurred speech.

"I can't believe...I..." she trailed off; finding it difficult to speak after weak sobbing.

Shepard said nothing but continued to stroke her back as he held her. He finally spoke.

"I shouldn't have brought you on that mission. I knew that there were going to be difficult things see...especially after our encounter with the Rachni. You're strong Tali. I wish I could say the same thing about myself…but I can't."

She didn't ask. She knew about Shepard's incident on Akuze. He knew that he had emotional scars too. She didn't feel so alone anymore.

"Thank you. That means a lot to me." She said, reluctantly pulling away from Shepard. "If you'll excuse me…I need to take a long hot shower."

**Chapter 10**

**12/8/2183**

**Location: Planet Ulipses**

She walked out of Shepard's room and out of the Normandy. It was dark outside.

"What is the time?" She asked to one of the marines walking by her. The soldier stopped and looked at her watch on her armor.

"0132 hours." She said quickly, walking off into the Normandy. It was morning. She looked around and saw soldiers sitting by campfires, Making damage assessments to the Normandy and keeping sentry. She stepped down from the small hill from the door and walked Next to her compatriots around a fire. Wrex sat against a box digging his armored fingers through a bag of Human potato chips. Garrus was lying on a crate across from the Krogan looking through binoculars up into space. Williams, Wallace, and Stacker were playing cards, and the Asari was sleeping; her head buried under her arms as she leaned against a crate. After examining her friends, she jumped up on top of the crate and sat down next to Garrus.

"What are you looking at?" She asked curiously.

"The stars and the moons." Garrus said sheepishly as he continued to look through the binoculars.

"Oh."

"Do you need something?"

"No, nothing at all."

"How is Shepard?"

"He is sleeping."

"That's good."

"How are you holding up, Garrus?"

He brought his binoculars down from his face and placed them next to him. He turned his face to look at her.

"I honestly don't know. I'm enjoying the view and trying to make the most of this. Being here is quite a humbling experience. This little accident…has given me a whole new perspective on life. Were not out here hunting down some criminal, or doing the daily tasks of life; were out here with only each other." He fell silent. He spoke again, this time more softly. "I intend to enjoy every bit of this moment."

"Good to hear, Garrus." She said softly, agreeing with his opinion on the situation. She jumped down from the crate and leaned against it, sliding to the ground. With nothing better to do she began fiddling with her omni-tool.


	5. Section 5

**Chapter 11**

**12/8/2183**

**Location: Planet Ulipses**

The others were sleeping. She was wide awake. She looked up to the stars… The billions upon billions in the galaxy… She tried to grasp the concept of how big the universe was…but to no avail. She couldn't even begin fathoming the vast expanse of space. There could be millions of other sentient life that existed beyond their own galaxy. She could hear Garrus shifting on top of the box for a more comfortable position as he snored soundly. She could feel a small amount of heat radiating from the fire. She pulled out a water pouch from her small pack lying next to her and connected it with a small tube to her helmet piece. She began to suck. She looked up once more into space looking at the intricate designs and patters of the sky. The flotilla was out there…some where… and she would join them once more. But for now, she would remain here with her friends for as long as they were stranded on this deserted planet. She refocused her attention to the spectacle of the flying meteorites. What were they? Something bad she assumed. She didn't know what to conclude. Meteorites changing speed, changing directions, and going through the ground didn't sound very appeasing for safety; but so far nothing else had happened. For the time they had been here, there had always been a small congregation watching at the shooting stars for one time or another; it was rather amusing to look at, considering there was nothing else to do that didn't involve daily patrols or assessments to the Normandy and her crew.

She sighed as she finished her packet of water. She had an itch forming on her nose. Focusing her attention on her nose, she brought her hand up to itch it, but bumped her hand on the visor. She sighed and wriggled her nose back and forth to try and remove the uncomfortable feeling. She wanted to take her mask off. But she shouldn't…She couldn't, but then again…No, it was too unsafe…Maybe some immuno-boosters…Just for a few minutes. And plus, it's only to experience the weather…Yeah...That would do the trick. She moved her arm into view with the injector facing her. With a button she pressed it and felt a small pinch. A few more minutes and she would take her helmet off.

* * *

She took in a shallow breath of air; still afraid of the idea of getting terribly sick. She fought off the idea and focused on what the tingling cold and wind felt on her face; something new and unnatural. It felt good. She noticed Shepard walking out of the Normandy and she froze. He followed suit as he laid his eyes upon her…after an awkward stare, he walked approached her until they were within arms length.

"Tali…I, uh…Your mask is off."

"Yes…I know" She replied with a sheepish smile, showing off her incisors. She didn't know what Shepard was thinking about her.

"Shouldn't you have it…well…on?"

"Yes, but I boosted my immunity…for now." She looked down towards her feet. She felt embarrassed about her exposed face.

"What's wrong?" Shepard asked

"It's your reaction…" She said, fiddling with the rocks below her feet.

"I'm just surprised you have it off that's all." He said after a long exhale of breath.

"You think…I'm-" She was cut off by Shepard .

"Ugly?"

She looked down once more into the dirt. She regretted taking her mask off.

"If anything, you're the exact opposite. I didn't even recognize you for a second."

Her new profound happiness surged into her and she looked back up towards him.

"So I'm-" She was cut off again by Shepard ; but his time, more subtly.

"Cute? Gorgeous? Beautiful? You're a combination of any of the three Tali."

She felt hot all of a sudden despite the cold air. This couldn't be happening...not even in her wildest dreams. She paused; unknowing on how to react accordingly. No one has every said that to her.

"How long before you have to put your mask back on?" He asked interrupting her thoughts.

"Soon." She muttered. Shepard stood beside her and looked up into the sky putting his hands into his pockets.

"Why did you take it off?"

"Wanted to feel the air for myself…that and I had an itch on my nose."

He laughed and looked at her again. It was almost if he looked to admire her face. She took notice and felt his gaze as if it were another compliment. She ran her gloved fingers through her hair, massaging her scalp.

"You like the feeling of the wind?"

"Yes." she replied, putting her hand back down on her side.

"We all take this simple feeling for granted...besides you…"

"Yeah?"

"Guaranteed."

She inhaled deeply, feeling the cold fresh air surge into her lungs. She couldn't get used to the unfiltered air...so different...she turned and faced him, her smile growing ever more apparent. Then she frowned.

"You know…They drill it in our heads to never take off our suits unless if absolutely necessary…Yet, I disobeyed my instincts and training..." She said with discontent. The statement was answered with silence as Shepard continued to stare into the sky. He glanced over to where the asteroids were falling and turned to meet Tali's gaze.

"Yeah? Sometimes I fight against my training sometimes…Basic never taught to fight against mindless husks and thralls along with overwhelming hoards of Geth being controlled by a Reaper and a Rogue Spectre losing his mind sent to destroy the entire Galaxy."

He turned back letting out a shiver. Their breath became visible, slowly rising up into the air.

"It's getting colder." Shepard said Rolling down the sleeves of his fatigues. He then rummaged through the crate behind him and pulled out a Jacket the same color as his uniform and put it on.

"I had to fight my instincts, even if was against my training." He said slowly. The conversation ended. They both sat down against the box Garrus was sleeping on. Tali had her helmet in hand fiddling with it on her lap.

"So all of your people have immunodeficiency?"

"Yes…we all do."

"I have one question in mind though…If and when your people do finally get to colonize a planet…what exactly are you going to do about...well...your immune system?"

Tali stuttered on the question.

"I…I have no idea…"

"Are you guys doing anything about your immunity?"

"Before we leave the Flotilla we are implanted with immunity boosters just as a safety precaution as you already know…As for a permanent cure…we just don't have the resources much less the time to conduct that kind of research on our immunity."

"That sucks." He said

"It does suck indeed." She muttered. She sighed as she looked into the visor of the helmet she was holding. There was a smudge. She wiped it off with her fingers. She flipped the helmet around exposing the area she fit her head through and put it on. She then grabbed the piping on the side panels connecting them to the back of her neck. After doing so she draped the purple hood around her helmet.

"Well, I enjoyed the feeling while it lasted." She said her voice now half mechanical. Shepard stared at her visor, trying to pierce through the purple tint that concealed her face, but to no avail. He turned back gazing towards the fire.

"Too bad you can't keep it off all the time. Maybe someday you-." Shepard was interrupted by an explosion cracking in the distance.

"What was that?" Tali asked turning around to the source of the sound. Marines were yelling in the distance. Gunfire began to take place of the silence. Garrus rolled off the crate and fell onto Tali and Shepard.

"What is going on?" Garrus yelled while being pushed off by Shepard and Tali as the lay up against the crate. The Krogan stormed off pulling out his shotgun and running to the source of the violence. Ashley, along with two other marines took positions behind the crates being abruptly woken up by the piercing sounds of gunfire. Liara was clutching a pistol cautiously looking around to grasp an idea of what was happening. A small ship hurtled over the Normandy.

"That is not Geth!" Garrus yelled pointing at the ship with his assault rifle. Shepard's Communicator clicked on with Stacker on the other end.

"Commander, we are under heavy fire! Be advised! Hostiles are unknown entities! Corporal! Suppressive-" The Sergeant was interrupted by an explosion and static "Suppressive fire damnit! Orders Commander?"

"Hold them off as long as you can! If you need to fall back, do so!"

"Commander, Mako is fired up and ready. Orders? Shit! We are being overrun, shoot the damn-" The transmission ended with a high pitched click.

"Assume defensive positions! Engage all hostiles!" Commander yelled through the communicator. He turned his attention towards Tali.

"Douse the damned fire!" He yelled pulling out his pistol and holding it close to his chest. Tali did as she was told and carefully shot a hole into a bucket full of water letting it tip into the flames. The heat dissipated along with the light.

"Get up! We are sitting ducks out here! Move out and suppress the enemy!" he yelled standing up.

Tali followed Shepard closely with her weapon in hand and slid into cover next to him along with another blond haired black marine.

"Anybody know what the hell were fighting?" Shepard yelled to his fellow soldier.

"No sir! But they sure is hell look creepy!" The marine replied flinching as a fragment of metal ricochet off the box. Tali inhaled deeply and held it in while she turned to face a marine ripping off the cover of a medi-gel pack to place on his wounded arm. He winced as he smeared the paste into his wound. One of insect like creatures stood from cover and fired at the wounded marine. The marine screamed as he looked at the newly found hole on his leg and picked up his sidearm lying closely to him and aimed at the alien who had shot him. Tali flew out of cover running towards the marine. She slid towards the Human firing a 3 round burst towards the enemy's midsection. It fell crumpling into a mess of organic mesh. She looked at the injured soldier. He fell into a seizure and his eyes went into the back of his head. She acted quickly. Digging through the small pack on her hip and pulled out a packet of Medi-gel. She quickly opened it and dumped it into his leg and more onto his arm. Shepard and Garrus along with the black marine accompanying them slid into cover next to her.

"I can take over from here Tali! Go with Shepard and Go over to the Mako! They have been overrun!"

"I'll cover you Vakarian! Get him stabilized!" The marine yelled firing around the corner of the box nailing one of the insect like aliens. Tali and Shepard ran into a small trench near the stern of the Normandy which sloped down towards the Small encampment that housed a tent full of Scavenged parts from the Normandy . The Mako was defending the Northern Side of the ship along with a squad of Marines. She doubted any of them were still alive, she doubted she would get out alive either, and a sudden painful fear surged into her thoughts...What if her information that could potentially help the Quarians learn about their creation is lost forever? What if…What if this is my last moments spending time with...Her thoughts were rearranged as she noticed that she was under fire and crouched into the trench. She looked to her left and found Shepard, still in his fatigues next to Tali. She realized he didn't have any armor on and was completely exposed to weapons fire. She looked up bringing her assault rifle to bear and fired a long burst towards the enemy. The Mako rolled over the hill and slammed into the alien causing an explosion of hazy black mist. She still didn't get a clear view of what they were fighting, although their technology seemed even more advanced then theirs...and the fact they look almost like insects. It reminded her of the stories on the Flotilla about…about…The collectors…She drew her conclusion instantly. They were fighting the Collectors. She froze. The Mako disappeared over a hill.

"Shepard …I know what we are fighting against…"

"What?" Shepard hissed as he bumped his nose with his fingers. He scowled at the pain.

"We are fighting the Collectors…"

"What? I thought they were a myth!"

"So did I." She muttered. A Collector jumped down into the trench and brought his weapon to bear aiming it at Shepard. Tali jumped in front of Shepard instinctively as it fired. She took the brunt of the impact and killed the power in her Shielding system and collapsed onto the floor. She exhaled and fell into darkness.

* * *

Looking out into the Hazy Horizon, she inhales and slowly releases the air, watching the steam rise from her breath. The sun finally recedes under the Mountains; illuminating the sky with bright blue stars. She looks up at the constellations. Zyphesska and the Kefleesha were the two that she remembered; the ones her mother always pointed out to her when she was a child. She shivered under the cold temperature and looked down. Not a stitch of clothing was attached to her body. Surprised, she covered her breasts by folding her arms. She looked around and found herself surrounded by dark green vegetation and the sky consuming her with the slight glow of the stars. The environment around her began to change rapidly as the ground was replaced with metal tile, the vegetation growing into walls, and the sky being replaced with a dull silver metal ceiling. She was now in a bed still bare of any clothing save covered in blankets concealing her form. Looking to her left she saw a silhouette of a Quarian male in a dark corner of the room. The figure took a step into the only form of light from the small window on the other side of a curved wall. She froze as the Quarian spoke.

"Tali." Shepard s voice escaped from the Quarians lips.

"Shepard?" She trembled rising the sheets higher up against her chest.

He didn't reply but only grinned as he fell back into the darkness of the corner.

"Wait!" She yelled reaching out to him. He was too far. She dropped the sheets and got up and tried to run towards him. As she drew closer to the corner, she was grabbed by strong warm arms and carried, slightly shaking under Shepard s jogging. She smiled as she cuddled towards the arms that held her, closing her eyes.

* * *

"Tali!" Shepard yelled carrying Tali on his back while clutching his pistol as he ran from box to box under the fire from the Collectors.

"Shepard…" she muttered. Shepard turned around to see Wrex jump from a box smashing his shotgun barrel into a Collector and firing the weapon. He turned around crushing his fist into another and stabbing it with his knife as it fell to its knees. He charged towards another enemy with fired two rounds into its torso splitting the alien in half. Satisfied with his work he turned back towards Shepard behind a crate

"What happened to her?" He grunted pointing towards the unconscious Quarian.

"She saved my life…but got knocked out in the process." Shepard said. He fired his pistol around the corner.

"Nice. Let's hurry up and end this. I still want to finish those Potato Chips that you gave me."

Wrex was interrupted with his communicator.

"Let's wrap this up! We got this under control! Finish these bastards off!" The harsh voice said through the communicator.

"Where is the Commander?" a marine said on the receiving end of the COM.

"Shepard is not responding to his COM."

"Shepard is right here." Wrex growled through the Communicator. "He is fine."

Shepard got up slowly jumping slightly hoisting her up higher on his back for a more comfortable position, to compensate for the extra weight.

"You are heavier than you look." Shepard grunted. He got up and saw a collector floating up from cover behind a pile of scrap glowing blue. Wrex casually raised his Shotgun and fired into the floating body. As the body fell Liara Jumped down from a box, her body still glowing from the effects of her powers.

"Thank you." Liara said walking towards the three.

"Is Tali injured?" Liara asked.

"I hope not. She is unconscious right now." Shepard replied.

"Come on, let's stop wasting time and finish these things off."

"Those things….Those things are Collectors." Shepard pointed towards the carapace lying on the ground.

"Hmph…Collectors eh? Should have known. "

"…maybe they could explain the falling meteors that were magically able to change direction and stuff."

"Yeah…But we still don't know why they are doing it."

"Liara, Wrex. You guys go and team up with Williams and Garrus."

"Right…Come on Liara, we got a little work to do."

Shepard slowly put down Tali up against the walls of the trench.

"Tali…come on. Wake up…come on."

He patted her on the shoulder. She slouched over to the side and fell into the dirt, her visor smudging under the grime.

"God damnit…Tali…" He said pulling her back up to a sitting position.

He looked up and saw the Horizon getting brighter. He looked back down Towards Tali. Giving up he hoisted her back up on his back and jogged towards the steadily inclining trench.

"God damn…You are heavy."


	6. Bonus Section

**Bonus Chapter**

**10/13/2183**

**Location: Citadel**

**

* * *

  
**

Tali sat with the others in the Café watching the others eat and drink. Shepherd was at a meeting with Udina and Captain Anderson, briefing him on the events at Virmire, and the intelligence that had been gathered before losing contact with the STG force occupying the planet. She wished she could eat the food the others were eating. Even Garrus, the Turian was eating food; all she could do was stare intently. To compensate for her hunger, she dug her hand through the small satchel she carried. She retrieved a packet of paste and connected a tube from her visor to pouch. She began to suck, and the sludge dribbled into her mouth; a dull combination of the nutrients she needed to carry on her day.

"That looks nasty." The Krogan said, taking a bite out of his purple meat.

"It is." Tali answered, swallowing the bland paste.

"To bad you can't eat this. It's really good." Wrex said, stabbing his eating utensil into the purple meat and shredding a piece off. "I would share it…But you have a mask on, and I'm too selfish." He smirked before stuffing the meat in his mouth.

"That's nice." She muttered. The Asari swirled her drink around in the cup and took a sip. Garrus finished the last piece of his meal and stood up, walking towards the restrooms.

"Funny…We are chasing down a maniac ex-Spectre who has an army of Geth under his control with the speculation that there is a Reaper involved in all this and yet, we sit here in a Café as if we were carrying out our daily life eating a nice meal with friends? I find that very ironic." Shepherd said approaching Tali from behind.

"What did you get out of the debriefing?" Tali asked, turning her attention towards Shepherd and not the sludge that she was eating.

"Nothing that you guys don't already know; it was mostly a rerun of what we already got…Kind of a waste of time." The commander said, sitting down and uncapping a water bottle. He took a swig and looked at Wrex. "What does that taste like?" Shepherd asked pointing towards the food Wrex was consuming.

"Spicy. Juicy. Hard to explain." He replied in between bites.

"Well, we are going to be on the Citadel for a few days. The Normandy has to be refitted and checked over. The crew has leave for the time being. I'll prepare an area for us to stay in for a few days." Shepherd turned towards Tali.

"Do you want a room? You don't have to have one since you have a room already on the Normandy."

"I would like to have one, if you don't mind." Tali murmured slowing another mouthful of sludge.

"Of course." Shepherd replied, a smile growing on his face. "I'll make the arrangements now; I have nothing better to do anyways."

* * *

Tali was tired, but couldn't sleep. Her vicious cycle of unwanted silence kept her awake. Getting up from her bed, she clumsily made her way towards the light switch and flipped it on. She examined the small quarters. The small room gave her comfort and security; something that lacked in the living Quarters on the Normandy. She flipped the light switch back off and walked out of her room into the hallway. She noticed a small noise escaping form Shepherd room. Fighting her instincts, she followed her curiosity and approached his door. She could hear a voice of some sort. She listened more closely.

_-But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is the sun! Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon who is already sick and pale with grief-_

Tali wondered what the Commander was listening too. She brought her head closer to the wall.

_It is my lady! O, it is my love! O, that she knew she were! She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that? Her eye discourses; I will answer it._

She found herself knocking on the door. She wanted to slap herself, but she didn't.

The poetic words stopped and footsteps were heard approaching. After a rigorous sound escaped from unlocking locks, the door opened and a tired looking shepherd in Sky-blue Pajamas welcomed her.

"Hi Tali, you need something?" Shepherd asked, rubbing his eyes.

"I, uh…No. I just overheard what you were listening to something…" She said. Tali fought the temptation to rub the back of her neck.

"Oh, I'm sorry, was it too loud?" Shepherd asked, worried that he was being rude.

"No, not at all…as a matter of fact, I found it rather interesting."

"It's Romeo and Juliet…I watch stuff like that when I'm bored…It's the Original. Not the ones the made in the 2060's…that one was a little….weird…"

"Is it?" She asked. She just liked talking to Shepherd…She hated to admit it, even if she was only admitting it to herself.

"Yeah…" He said quietly. Tali wanted to ask if she could watch too...But she couldn't bring herself to do it. Shepherd wanted to invite her in to watch, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. They sat in silence for a few seconds.

"You can't sleep either huh?" Shepherd asked, interrupting the silence.

"Nope"

"Neither can I, that's why I'm watching these videos. Care to watch with me?"

"Sure. I would be happy to." Tali whispered. She masked her feeling of happiness and entered his quarters. The two sat down leaning up against the bottom end of the bed on the floor and looked at the vid screen. Shepherd pressed a button on the remote and the Movie resumed.

"_Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven having some business, do entreat her eyes to twinkle in their spheres till they return. What if her eyes were there, they in her head?" _


	7. Bonus Section 2

**Bonus Chapter**

**10/21/2183**

**Location: Aboard SSV Normandy **

"Funny. I don't remember asking for your help." Garrus turned to see Tali approach from behind him.

"Very funny Garrus. Now what it is that you need help with?" Tali picked up a tool from the table and examined it.

"Don't touch that! That's important" Garrus attempted to snatch the tool away from her. Her reflexes said otherwise. She placed her free hand on his chest and moved the tool away from his reach.

"I know what I'm doing Garrus. Don't worry." Tali gave him a slight push. Garrus corrected his posture.

"Of course you do." He turned around and fell on one knee to check on the Mako's wheels.

"Damned Thresher Maw...Melted the hub caps of the wheels...again. Remind me to tell Shepard to avoid those acidic pools we always seem to run into." Garrus stood back up and leaned up against the vehicle.

"Seriously Tali, what do you need?" He flickered his mandibles to show the sincerity in his voice.

"Were the only two down here; thought we could just chat." She looked down and sat on a box. Garrus didn't show it, but he enjoyed chatting with Tali. Ashley had some kind of animosity towards him...and Wrex just wallowed around with nothing to do.

"Don't you have the engine to take care of?" Garrus smirked returning his attention to the Mako.

"Nope...nothing that needs my immediate attention." Tali replied leaning back to stretch her back.

"We took a beating with that Thresher Maw. You okay?"

"Just some suit ruptures...nothing too serious."

"I'm surprised on how you do it Tali." Garrus muttered. He was tired.

"Do what?" Tali cocked her head to the side displaying her curiosity.

"How you can fight...Did some extranet research. Don't know if the information is accurate...but I do know that your guys' immune systems aren't what they used to be." He turned his head to face her. He could see her glowing eyes blink rapidly.

"Oh...I amaze myself sometimes too. I sometimes surprise myself on how far I've gotten." Tali answered, her voice barely raising above a whisper.

"It's not your skills that worry me, Tali. You saved our asses more than enough times to count...it's your immunity that I'm more worried about. How do you do it?"

"I don't know...luck?" She laughed at herself. Luck doesn't coexist with Quarians. 300 years of Exile proved that. He nodded silently.

"Maybe..." He trailed off as he took a swig from his water bottle. His console beeped behind him. Garrus turned to face the sound.

"Hmph...Yeah...I thought so." Garrus mumbled after looking over the screen.

"What is it?" Tali got up and tried to look over Garrus' shoulder. She forgot how tall he was.

"You know those parts we need for the Mako? They're sitting halfway across the galaxy." He shook his head. "Well...we'll get the parts eventually." He pressed a series of buttons and the console shut down. Tali sat back down on the crate. She looked up and saw Garrus taking off his heads up display over his left eye.

"You look different with that off." Tali chuckled. Garrus looked over and scoffed.

"I'd say the same about you if you took off your helmet."

"Trust me. I would if I could." Her voice tightened as she stretched against her suit. An unenthused voice displayed weakly over the intercom; interrupting their conversation.

"Geth have spotted us. We are under attack. Prepare for immediate boarding action." The voice paused giving a long sigh. "This is a drill. Repeat, this is a Drill."

Garrus shook his head and rubbed his eyes before putting his heads up display back on his head.

"Come on Tali. We should head up and contain this 'threat'." Tali smiled at Garrus.

"Says you; I report to engineering to ensure we can make a safe getaway. You have to head up to the CIC to face this 'threat'." Tali answered lightly. "Catch you later Garrus." She added before walking back into the engineering room.

"Yeah...catch you later."


	8. Section 6

**Chapter 11**

**12/8/2183**

**Location: Planet Ulipses**

Panting, Shepard put Tali down onto the ground on the grimy dirt. Stacker approached cautiously; obviously shaken by the attack. He spoke, his words slurring occasionally.

"Commander, we have eight casualties. We have two MIA. Four are KIA. Orders?"

"Get everyone up to Combat Status Alpha. Set up a defensive perimeter around the ship. Everyone outside of the Normandy will wear armor and carry weapons at all times. The Mako will be positioned in front of the entrance to the Ship…" Shepard blurted under his breath. He sighed. Things didn't add up. Why wouldn't the Collectors just kill them from overhead with ships? They were at an extreme tactical disadvantage in position and firepower. The only conclusion that he could draw is that the collectors wanted something from them. Something important. He looked behind him staring at the massive hulk of metal: The Normandy. The drive core? Maybe. It was cutting edge. The most advanced in Citadel Space. That was the only connection he could make. He didn't like it. "Make sure the dead receive a proper burial." Shepard added.

"Yes sir, I will see to it myself." Stacker replied "Anything else sir?"

"Nothing else, just give me status updates every 20 minutes. I want to know everything. Set up vantage points of where the Collectors Field of Fire is. We may be on a hill, but we still have plenty of dug in defensive positions. We can use the higher ground to our advantage." Shepard wiped the sweat forming on his brow. "We need to bottle neck the enemy if we are ever forced to retreat at the entrance of the ship…That's all for now, I know you are more than capable to monitor these problems."

"Yes sir." Stacker answered. Shepard glanced at Tali.

"How is she?" Stacker pointed towards the unconscious Quarian.

"I don't know…" He bit his lip. His nose hurt….The meds faded away and the dull pain gave him a headache…and Tali…

A mechanical moan escaped from Tali's mouth piece. Shepard flinched at Tali's voice. He knelt down next to her and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Shit…You okay?" Shepard asked, worried with Tali's condition.

"Don't know...I won't find out until I get up…" She reached her hand out. Shepard grasped it and hefted her to her feet.

"I'm okay. Just some throbs in my head. I'll be fine…"

"You jumped out in front of me…You know that right?"

She liked where this was going.

"War makes you do crazy things Shepard."

"Yeah… Any reason in particular you did that for me? You have a lot to risk out here for your people Tali."

She smiled. She was inexplicably happy.

"I know…But your special." and with that she brought her hand behind Shepard's head and bumped her visor on his forehead.

* * *

"Joker, really; I could give a shit less if you were out there than in here. As a matter of fact, it would be best if you stay in here…I don't think you could handle what happens outside of the ship." Shepard winced after he said so. After the initial attack against the Normandy, the only injury Joker received was a broken thumb.

"Yeah, your probably right commander...brittle bones and assault rifles don't mix well in a blender." Joker smirked. Shepard grimaced.

"Nice try Joker. Try a little harder next time when you want me to feel bad." He ended the conversation by walking out of the med bay and waving Doctor Chawkwas goodbye. He walked by a food dispenser and pressed a button. A burger fell out of the dispenser and he picked it up. Unwrapping the foil, he brought the sandwich up to his mouth and took a bite. He couldn't stop thinking about what Tali had done with him with the bumping foreheads. What does it mean? Obviously some kind of Quarian expression he wasn't familiar with...huh.

He got used to the awkward angle of the ship. It had managed to tilt back to a more natural degree; as the dirt around the ship shifted after the Collector ship hovered over the Normandy. He shuddered; the Collectors…He didn't even want to think about it. If they didn't get help from somebody soon…They would all be dead. This could be the last few days to spend on life. On a crashed ship with only friends…This may be the very last moments I can spend any time with… Shepard's thoughts were delayed when he found Tali in his room.

"Hello commander." She mumbled. Her mask was off again.

"Tali…I, uh…your mask is off." He said. He wanted to smack himself for saying the exact same thing as he did last time. She frowned.

"You noticed. That's great."

Sarcasm; she grasped it well…at least for the past few days she has. Shepard took another bite from his burger and set it down on the table and walked to the mini refrigerator. He pulled out two cans of soda and tossed one towards Tali. She caught it and opened the can with her gloved fingers and took a sip.

"Good as ever Shepard." She said showing off a toothy smile. Shepard could get used to this.

"Definitely; you know, I want to check out what other soda's you can drink besides Ginger Ale."

"Club soda, and one other flavor, although I don't remember what it was called. I researched it a while ago."

"Yeah?" He took a sip. "I'm sure you'll remember eventually…" He paused carefully choosing his next words. "Tali, what you did back there, saving me and all…I didn't quite get to thank you correctly. So...Thanks…I would have been pulp if it were not for you."

Shepard didn't know Quarians could blush; he didn't realize how closely Quarians emote with their faces as humans do. Some things he guessed transfer through almost naturally; even between different species.

"And I would've been dead too if it weren't for you dragging me all the way to safety; But, you're welcome Shepard." She added loquaciously. She took another sip of the soda. Shepard looked at her eyes; Stunning beauty. His eyes could barely grasp her gorgeous complexion.

"So why did you do it?" Shepard asked.

"I already told you. You're special."

Shepard smiled.

"And in what way is that?" Shepard leaning against the table.

"Don't be coy John. You know exactly why." Tali stated. Her eyes were caressing Shepard's face. He was being called by his first name…He could get really used to this.

Tali didn't know what she was doing…She'd never done this in her entire life; yet if felt so good and right; but at the same time so inexplicably wrong. Shepard smiled leaning back on his chair.

"Yeah? Why do you think I saved you from what you did?" He questioned. She shrugged.

"I'm hoping for the same reason." She smiled another toothy smile. She could tell Shepard liked that.

"Damn. I was hoping you would say something along the lines of: Because I'm a valuable asset to the team; or because I have information that I need to give to my people."

"I may never get to go back and give the data to my people, John. That is why I came here. You of all people realize this." She pointed out flatly. She no longer felt worried, much less nervous.

"I know." Shepard said looking down into his drink. He gulped the rest down. "It may very well happen…" He looked up. Tali was staring straight through Shepard. For once he felt like there was a force he could not dominate by brute force. He didn't know what to think of it. Shepard got up crushing his can and walked over to the trash bin to throw away the soda. After tossing the cylinder into the waste basket, he turned around and found Tali mere inches away from him.

"I just want you to know, that whatever happens, I'm right behind you." She whispered, her voice barely audible for Shepard to hear.

"Glad to hear." John whispered back.

They embraced.

* * *

Shepard woke from his slumber. He found Tali's body snuggled up against him from behind, her arm wrapped around his chest. For once in Shepard's life, he felt peace and happiness at its best. Even though they were deserted on a lonesome planet; he didn't care. He wouldn't care if he spent the last of his days like this. This is all he wanted. This is all he needed. He would enjoy every detailed second of it.

Shepard brought his hand down and slightly grasped her small hand wrapped around him and brought it close to his heart. He closed his eyes, with a grin on his face. Never had he felt the universe this perfect. He had every reason to.


	9. Section 7

She felt the warmth of Shepherd, even through the Environment suit. She felt Shepherds sturdy grasp on her hand close to his beating heart. She licked her lips, taking care not to touch her interior of her mouth piece. She finally knew how Shepherd felt about her. She was happy; more than happy. She couldn't even describe the amount of happiness that ensued within her. Words couldn't even begin to illustrate the feeling.

So this was what it was like. Pure love. She giggled at the thought of an inter-species relationship. She giggled a little bit more, knowing that her speech speaker was turned off.

If someone asked her if she could ever like a human, she would vow against it. If someone ever asked her if she would ever like Commander Shepherd, she would automatically say no. Funny how things turned out.

She shifted herself into a more comfortable position up against the Commander. The heat that radiated off of him was soothing. She closed her eyes and brought her free hand under her head to serve as a pillow. If she could live like this for the rest of her life, she would. Nothing could compete against happiness she felt; nothing at all. She opened her eyes again. Her data…The data John had given her…She cursed to herself. She fought back the thoughts but she couldn't. One way or another…They would be separated; either getting killed from the Collectors or getting rescued. Neither of those sounded good to her. Her feelings were mixed...She couldn't pick sides that contradicted one another. She shoved the contempt thoughts into the dark side of her mind and enjoyed her close proximity with John while it lasted.

**Chapter 12**

**10/16/2183**

**Location: en-route to planet: Virmire**

Tali took her usual place in the engineering room. She stretched getting on her tippy-toes and raising her arms in the air. She yawned. The seal from her mouth apparatus temporarily broke, allowing condensation to condense onto her visor.

"Great." She mumbled.

"Something wrong Tali?" Adams brought his head up from the data-pad he was holding. She looked towards the engineer.

"Nothing…Just some smudge on my visor." She pointed to her mask. Adams chuckled.

"Nice." He brought his head back down rearranging his focus. She looked at the computer screen and couldn't make out what it said. The condensation blurred her vision. An itch began to form on her armored ankle.

"Wow." She muttered.

"What is it this time?" Adams asked.

"Oh...It's nothing..."

Adams didn't answer; he walked over to the computer console and began typing. She tried to ignore the itch and smudge on her visor but to no avail. To compensate for the smudge she turned her head slightly to the right and looked through the corner of her eye to read the commands. After about five minutes of straining she gave up. She expected the vapor to have disappeared by now. She shrugged and attempted to itch her ankle over the armored plating. No use. She turned over to Adams and spoke.

"Adams; requesting permission to relieve myself of duty for the time being."

"Of course Tali; you don't have to ask permission. You can l eave whenever you like…I can see that smudge on your visor. You might want to get that cleaned up."

"Yeah, I should."

As Tali walked out of the Engineering room she clumsily made her way to the Elevator. She waved her hand over the panel. As the motion sensor registered her hand it chimed a soft tone. Garrus had walked up from behind her. He spoke softly.

"Hey."

"Hi." She shuddered.

"You okay?" Garrus honestly worried.

"Just a little cold, that's all." She replied.

"I thought your suit regulates a constant comfortable temperature…."

"It does…or least it should be."

"You think there is something faulty?"

"Yes…I have condensation forming on my mask when it shouldn't be along with these chills… is it always this cold on the ship?"

"Not really...I mean…well I came over here to ask you if you wanted to have some of my food next time we eat."

"I would be delighted Garrus. Thank you very much."

"Your welcome. I need to check up on the Hull integrity on the Mako. Hope you get that suit problem of your fixed. Bye."

"Yeah. Bye." She shivered once more. The elevator doors finally opened to receive Tali. She stepped inside. She slid her finger over the button for the second level of Normandy. The doors closed and a small whir escaped from the gears raising the platform.

She walked into her room and tore her mask off along with her boot. She ripped off her gloves and itched her persistent scratch on her ankle. She let out a moan of pleasure. She sat on the edge of the bed. With relief Tali picked up her mask and placed it on her lap looking inside. She shook her head. She grabbed a cloth from the side of the table and wiped the water vapor off. With her free hand she sprayed an anti-condensing fluid on the cloth and smeared it on her visor. After completing the simple task she looked at the mirror across from her. She laughed as she saw herself. Her hair was hilarious to look at; a matted and frizzled look of hair going in every which way direction. She placed the Mask next to her and brought her hands up to the messy hair and massaged her scalp. She fixed her hair to a more presentable position and placed her mask on again. After her subconscious process of connecting the pieces of her suit were done, she draped the hood over her head and walked back out of her room into the stasis pod.

Shepherd was a much laid back person. Especially during the times of extreme boredom or combat. But this was different. She reminded him of one of her friends back on the Flotilla: Giseck'Keeysu Nar Rayya. She chuckled at the thought of her friend. She saw Shepherd bouncing a rubber ball while sitting on a collapsible chair with a Hamburger in his free hand. He sat on the observatory platform in front of the Galaxy Central Command Holographic Display. She approached from behind him.

"How long have you been sitting like that?" She asked.

"The better question is why I'm sitting like this…But either way both those questions will be answered in the end." He countered, still looking at the hologram.

"Okay…Why are you sitting like that?" She asked putting her hands on her hips.

"You know how long it's been since we left the Citadel?" Shepherd asked sarcastically taking a bite from his sandwich. He was toying with her.

"I don't know Shepherd…6 hours? A little more?"

"Exactly."

Pressly glanced in their general direction and looked back down at his console.

"I know what I'm doing may not look very productive; but it is quite the contrary." He smirked. "I've managed to bounce my ball-" He bounced his ball down on to the metal ground and caught it with his hand as it brought itself back up. "-and eat a Burger" He took a bite and swallowed shortly afterwards. "And send off a report to Alliance command and the Preliminary Checklist Executives in the last 30 minutes." He bounced his ball high enough into the air for him to grab his file next to him to wave towards her. He put down his papers and caught the ball without any effort. "-while managing to give orders to multiple individuals around the ship in order to maintain the Normandy to status quo." He finished by taking another bite of his burger.

"What is your point Commander?" She asked intrusively. He paused and zoned out.

"I have no clue." He blurted. He let his gaze meet Tali's mask. "So what brought you up here?"

"Boredom." She answered flatly.

"You want to fiddle around with the CIC?"

"What do you mean?" She asked looking at the holographic map of the galaxy. It did sound a little fun.

"You can explore the Galaxy with your finger tips." With that he pressed a small button on the underside of the railing and brought a holographic display levitating over him. It was scale model 5 times smaller than the larger one on the main deck. Shepherd brought his finger up towards the small levitating display and spun the galaxy around into a circle and then spread his fingers apart to zoom into a specific region of space. The larger scale mimicked the smaller display.

"Here. You try." He said. He placed his hand onto the side of the 3 dimensional hologram and waved it over to Tali. The display then hovered to Tali for her to examine.

"Interesting." She said cautiously placing her fingers on the scale map of the galaxy. Tali copied what Shepherd had done. A concealed smile grew on her face.

"I don't know about you commander, but I could amuse myself for hours with this." The two were interrupted from Joker's voice over the intercom.

"Sorry sir, but got Alliance command on the other line for you. Do you want me to uplink it? It's Admiral Hackett."

"Go ahead. Patch him through." Shepherd said clearing his throat.

"Hackett Here Commander." his voice croaked.

"Yes Admiral?"

"I wanted to congratulate you on your success on Noveria. You did a good job. Too bad we couldn't have captured Benezia. And the Rachni…You made the right choice with them Commander. We all trust your judgment…at least the Alliance does..."

"Thank you sir." He grimaced. He glanced at Tali, his face grim. A sharp painful memory lapsed into Tali's mind with the incident on Noveria. She shook it off. For almost a second she looked docile.

"You're making us proud Commander. Hackett out." The intercom squawked off. Shepherd leaned back in his chair and continued eating. Tali refocused her attention at the small Hologram floating in front of her. The two held their silence for 10 minutes, minding their own business.

Shepherd finished his burger and got up crushing the foil in his hands.

"Hold this for a second please?" He asked holding the foil out for her to grab. She grabbed it with her free hand and continued exploring the small map. The commander folded the chair and grabbed his file and ball.

"Thanks. I got it." He said reaching for the wrapper in her hand.

"I wish we had this on every ship on the Flotilla…Too bad." She pressed her finger on the exit button and the hologram faded, only leaving empty air. She turned around and faced Shepherd. He was clumsily walking down from the observatory platform. She approached Shepherd and grabbed the chair from him.

"I'll help." She told him.

"Thanks." He mumbled. They both walked their way down into his quarters and put away his materials. He tossed the file like a Frisbee and landed on his desk with it spinning to a halt.

"That was neat." She motioned over the file he threw. Alenko walked into Shepherds room.

"Oh…I'm sorry…did I interrupt?" Shepherd rolled his eyes. Tali took notice.

"No. Nothing. What do you need Lieutenant?"

"Something that can wait Commander. I'm sorry once again…I should've knocked." He left the room the door closing behind him.

"What was that?" Tali asked looking at the commander?

"What?"

"That thing with your eyes." She stated.

"What? Me rolling my eyes?" He asked confused.

"Yeah…That."

"It's like saying whatever…or never mind…or…something like that."

"We have a similar expression." She replied.

"Really…and how do you express it?"

Tali flicked her visor. Shepherd laughed.

"Show me more." Shepherd asked, expressing his interest.

"Well you know these two." She clutched her neck and put her fingers on her mouthpiece. She gave a weak clout on each side of her helmet panels with the palm if her hand. "That means we are content." She said after emoting. She placed her left pointer finger on the middle of her visor and curled it. "That means I have an itch."

Shepherd laughed some more. She laughed with him. As the laughter died down the two looked at each other.

"Too bad…We can just itch our itches…or at least most of the time."

"Yeah, too bad."

"Why don't you just say it instead of express it with your body?" Shepard waved his hand towards her.

"We do, but we use our body to express what we feel also. Its body language, but more…subtle to read. We can't really emote with our faces…well because…you know…"

"When we emote, our language can get really colorful…especially with pain, or anger."

"Colorful? In what way?"

"I mean like bad words…ones you shouldn't need to use…"

"Oh…we have those."

"What does you language sound like?" Shepherd asked. She turned her translator off.

"Say something." Shepherd stated. Tali shrugged.

"Oh yeah…that's right…You don't understand me…"

"Kokesfma? Mi Sefamu Chithda. Mea Yano Speh Klipsra Hija Bassip Sefamu Ka Mulaslan Sahm." She replied. Shepherd eyes grew wide with interest. He turned on his omni-tool and relayed the words into his tool to be translated. She said: What? I don't understand. I'm sure you know since we don't have translators on. Shepherd looked over and translated two words: 'Translators' and 'On'. He clumsily read the mix of words.

"Mulaslan Sahm." He stuttered. Tali turned her translator back on.

"Wow Shepherd. You accent was pretty good; although what you said lacked the use of conjunctions, verbs and pretty much everything in-between." Shepherd smiled.

"It was a good first try right?"

"Definitely…although I already know a lot of your words; the pronunciation is really easy too."

"Yeah I'm sure it is. Your language sounds like a tongue twister. Jesus Christ."

"Jesus Christ? He is a religious prophet right?" Tali asked stretching her fingers.

"Well…In the terms of the Jewish religion…Or at least I think it is the Jewish…The Christians believe he was the son of God."

"So the types of your religions have many ties with Jesus Christ that split into different opinions and perspectives?"

"Yeah…That about sums it up." He said bluntly.

"Interesting."

"Well…I don't know much about that kind of stuff…Always been rather…Skeptical…"

"Oh…" She mumbled. They sat in silence for a few minutes. Their expressions went completely blank staring off into space. After an elapse of 8 minutes Tali got up from the chair.

"I better go prepare my stuff…"

"Yeah…You do that Tali. I will see you later."

**Chapter 13**

**10/17/2183**

**Location: Planet Virmire**

Tali sat by herself next to a Salarian requisition officer in charge of handling all of the spare weapons that they had in stock. She sat on the floor at the edge of the tent looking out to the shore. If she weren't at war against Saren; and if the Geth hadn't set up a base here, she would've enjoyed the view. But she couldn't. How could she? She was about to get into a firefight with the Geth and Saren's allies…Who else knew what species had teamed up with the ex-Spectre? She didn't really want to know.

"So, Quarian…What brought you here to come and fight with us?" The Salarian asked quickly looking over his Omni-tool.

"I saw the opportunity to help in something that could determine the fate of the entire galaxy…I couldn't pass it up." She tried to use humor.

"A noble reason." The Salarian muttered. "What about your pilgrimage?"

She told the Salarian the same thing she told Shepherd after they had briefly met.

"What would reflect upon me if I were to ignore such a just cause? My pilgrimage can wait. This is more important." She said defensively. She almost found that question insulting.

"I see. Well. I hope I see you on the other side after this is all over."

"Like wise." Tali whispered looking back out into the sea.

* * *

"We are splitting up. Two teams." Shepherd pointed out kneeling down by a rock. "The terrain keeps splitting. We can cover more and attack more efficiently."

He pointed to Garrus and Tali. "You two are coming with me.

"Williams, you have Wrex and T'soni."

"Yes sir." Williams hastily pulled out her assault rifle and ran to the left with the Krogan and Asari trailing behind closely. The Com squawked.

"This is Alenko. All teams are ready. Standing by."

"Roger Alenko. We are infiltrating their flank now." Williams said over the Com.

"Good luck." Alenko muttered.

"Good luck." Williams said quietly.

"See you on the other side Lieutenant."

"Likewise sir."

* * *

Shepherd clambered over a rock and provided cover for Tali and Garrus to climb over the large obstacle. Sweeping the area with his rifle, he continued down the river bank. He saw a Geth patrol up ahead. He put his fist up signaling halt and a motion of his hand swaying down for them to lay low. They were 25 yards away. 4 soldiers and a Krogan. Garrus pulled out his sniper took aim at the most obvious threat. Tali did as Shepard had ordered and slowly made her way up towards the patrol group. When she finished her sneaky approach on the enemy, she was within 5 feet from their enemy. Shepherd unslung his Assault rifle and inhaled deeply.

"Tali. Open fire on my Mark. Pick the trooper on the far left. Use your discharge on the far right. Garrus has the Krogan." After ten seconds; of which felt like an eternity, Shepherd whispered his orders over the COM.

"Tali. Fire." She did so instinctively. She whipped out of cover and fired a round straight into the Geth trooper, removing his head from the blast. Garrus fired his sniper rifle; the round sunk deep into the Krogan's crest spurting organic mesh haphazardly across his allies. Tali followed the second order and overloaded the Soldier's weapon. Shepherd shot out of cover firing an accurate 3 round burst; crumpling the trooper in the middle of the patrol. The Geth with the overload weapon dove into cover. Tali approached the rock; her shotgun at eye level. The Geth jumped from cover towards Tali, slamming the butt of his weapon against her torso knocking her off her feet. Before Shepherd could fire into the soldier, the Geth leapt onto Tali again to buy himself time. Shepard and Garrus couldn't fire into their tussle. They began running towards her, their steps clumsily catching ground through the water.

Tali watched as the Geth trooper brought his fist down onto her face. She grabbed his arm before his fist could make contact with her visor. With her knee she hit the machine's groin in an attempt to knock the soldier off balance. It did nothing but temporarily confuse both of them. The enemy quickly found Tali's knife. Pining her down into the sand, he quickly reached for the knife strapped to her ankle; quickly glancing at the two figures running towards him and the Quarian. With the flick of the wrist he threw the knife towards the Turian. Garrus yelped as the knife sliced through the weak point of his armor leg joint. Garrus tripped under the pain and landed into the water grasping onto his leg. Shepherd stopped running and twitched. He hesitated if she should help Garrus first or Tali. He made his choice quickly.

Tali preformed an alligator roll to try and throw the Trooper off. It worked; but only temporarily. The Geth analyzed his options. The human did not have a clear shot, and the Quarian still lay recovering from her maneuver. It only took the Geth trooper a millisecond to pick out his available options. He threw out a barrier. Shepherd flinched and slammed into the shield; stumbling backwards. He examined the Human: Threat was now incapacitated. It was just him and the Quarian. He walked up towards Tali. He picked up a rifle from one of his fallen comrades. He found the Krogan still alive, a shaking mess of mush as materials continued to flow out of his head. He made its way past the dying mesh of flesh and helped Tali up.

"Thank you" she smirked. The soldier said nothing and took point watching the corner for hostiles. She knew the effects would ware off soon, but she hacked the soldier as soon as she had the chance. She shook her head and cursed at herself. This is what happens when one mistake can do to your entire squad. She gave the Geth soldier a grudging respect. He managed to incapacitate or injure the entire team single-handedly by himself with no weapon. She shook her head again. Garrus managed to get back up and pull the knife out near his groin. He braced himself up against the edge of a tall rock and glared at Tali. She accepted the Glare. She knew this was all her fault.

He flipped the knife around his armored fingers with ease. The blade ended in his hand, the handle sticking out towards Tali.

"I believe this belongs to you." He said with a coy look on his face.

"I'm sorry." Is all she could muster to say.

"Don't be." Garrus growled under the pain. The suit sealed the deep injury and applied Medi-gel. Garrus inhaled and exhaled deeply. The pain wore off and he began looking for his rifle submerged somewhere in the body of water. Shepherd woke from his temporary coma and slowly got up on both his feet. Rubbing his forehead he studied his environment. He glanced at Tali and Garrus.

"Glad to see everyone is okay. Let's hurry up. We've wasted too much time."

She was glad that the Commander didn't even mention the small incident. The three regrouped with the Trooper that had taken point behind the corner.

* * *

"-This exchange is over." The reaper said; its mechanical voice booming through the room.

Shepard stared blankly at the once illuminating figure that stood before them.

"Fuck you too." He whispered before turning around to face his friends.

"We need to rendezvous with Williams, let's go." Shepard paced, grabbing for his assault rifle that magnetically clung to his back. He stopped to face the Geth trooper.

"Light-bulb." He hissed "Take point." He watched as the trooper jogged towards the end of the hallway, its rifle raised and ready to shoot.

The others may have not noticed it, but there was something terribly wrong with that Geth soldier. Tali didn't want to think about the contradiction to the situation, so she filed the thought away for future consideration.

As they made their way to the rendezvous point, they were interrupted with an audible piercing cry through their COM. Wincing; Shepard brought his hand to his ear piece and spoke through the radio.

"Alenko, Status!"

"Holding Commander! We're going to make it!" Alenko left his radio on, and the sounds of battle continued. Another scream of pain followed afterwards. In the background of the battle, a fellow STG operative screamed that Captain Kirrahe was killed.

* * *

They rushed towards the nuke where Williams, Heathers and Stacker were close by, making the last second calibrations to the explosive.

"There. A jury-rigged nuke; ready to send this place sky high?" Williams tapped her fellow soldier on the shoulder. Heathers nodded in silent recognition. Williams noticed the Commander and rushed towards him, data pad in hand, checking the logistics of the explosive.

"Everything's set Commander, waiting on you" Williams said. "Where is Alenko?" She added. Shepard looked around, noticing the absence of Kaidan.

"Alenko, Status?" Shepard put his hand next to his ear piece. The sounds of battle enveloped the speakers.

"We're pinned down! We can't hold out much longer damnit! We're low on thermal clips and most of my team is KIA!"

"Hold on, were coming!"

"Negative Commander! Belay that!" Alenko replied, his voice almost screaming over the battle. Williams butted in.

"No god damnit! We didn't go all this way just for you to die! I'm getting you! Hold your ass up!"

"Be advised, fifty plus hostiles approaching northbound!"

"Those are going to be fifty plus dead hostiles when I get there LT! Hold tight!" Williams exclaimed, prepping her Assault rifle for battle.

"Williams, I didn't give your permission to do this." Shepard folded his arms across his chest, staring at Ashley.

"Remember what I said to Alenko about the whole 'with all due respect' thing? I wasn't asking for your permission." She turned around, and sprinted towards the gates to Alenko's position.

"Heathers. Stacker. Stick with her. She's going to need some help." Shepard pointed towards Williams.

"Yes sir." They replied in unison, before charging off behind the Gunnery Chief.

"Tali: run the diagnostics on this Nuke, I want you to prime it when we leave."

She stuttered at the order. "You got it Shepard. As she said so, her Omni-tool glowed to life. Tali jogged in the ankle deep water over to the jury-rigged explosive. Crude. She thought. But effective. The two words worked well with each other in Quarian Society and she knew it. The sound of an aircraft interrupted her train of thought. The sound itself told her what it was: A Geth Drop-ship. It began firing trios of slugs at its enemy. It dropped off Geth troops and continued its cover fire. Tali didn't like it. She was standing in the middle of a firefight with an armed nuke right in front of her. Not the most appealing situation. She ducked behind the nuke for cover and continued her work, her omni-tool beeping away.

"Shepard! Give me some cover! I don't like being out here in the open!" She yelled over her COM set. Shepard replied with subtlety in his voice.

"Don't worry Tali. They won't shoot you. They don't want to blow up either.

"Right." She smirked. She unholstered her pistol and fired blindly above the bomb.

"Williams, Status?" Shepard yelled through the COM. Alenko replied.

"Don't worry Commander, Williams is with us, were coming back. Be advised: Saren Arterius is in the vicinity! Recommend mission abort!"

"No! This mission will pull through! Now get yo-" Shepard looked up and saw him. Saren Arterius. His simple presence sent a chill down Shepard spine. The Turian spoke, his voice low and inhospitable.

"Very impressive Shepard. The Geth were utterly convinced that the Salarians were the real threat."

"They thought wrong." Shepard replied, his voice empty of emotion.

"No shit." Saren retorted. Shepard winced. Sarcasm was a bitch especially when an alien grasped the concept well.

"'No shit' this." Private James whispered under his breath. He fired his rocket launcher aiming at a large gas canister adjacent to Saren and his Geth. The explosion lit up the atmosphere into a blinding light of bright reds and yellows, with bleak smoke proceeding afterwards in the explosion. The marines retreated back into cover. Tali fell back into the water from the shockwave, terrified of the bomb before her. The battlefield became silent, save the rushing water and the hum of a quiet hover board. The smoke slowly cleared, leaving Saren's board floating effortlessly in the air.

"Where is he?" Shepard scanned the area for Saren, but found none. He was pushed with a bone crunching force, his body falling into the water. Shepard looked up to see the Turian's face. His body pulsed with biotic energy; his mandibles gaped at an odd angle. The Turian looked up to face Wrex. Wrex threw a punch at the Turian. Saren dodged the massive force and rolled towards Garrus grabbing his sniper rifle from his back. Garrus; astonished with what had just happened, turned around to face the ex-Spectre. Saren beat the butt of the weapon up towards Garrus' neck causing him to tumble over. Wrex charged, his body glowing an eerie blue before mimicking a push. Saren was blown back by the force; he fell back on his feet, performing an acrobatic back flip before glaring at his Krogan opponent. The marines couldn't help as the Geth pushed through the smoke and fired, running towards the Nuke. They fired, keeping the Geth back to protect the Quarian. Tali was done, and she ran to Shepard's aide; shotgun in hand running towards him, firing behind her to help stall their enemy.

Light-Bulb, as they now called their hacked Geth companion jumped from its hiding place and tackled the Turian, Saren Growled before throwing the trooper off its back sending him flying towards a concrete wall; leaving an imprint along with the trooper's body stuck to the wall. Garrus recovered from his blow and charged Saren; his Assault rifle deprived of thermal clips. He hefted the rifle in his arms like a bat; waving it over himself before it made contact with the ex-spectre's head, causing him to fall to his knees, blood ejecting from the blow. Wrex charged and jumped on top of the Turian, his shotgun in hand ready to dissipate the last round into his head. Out of all the things the ex-spectre could have done, he laughed. This caught the Krogan off guard. Enough time to pull his last trick up his sleeve. He pulsed blue before releasing the force of a heavy explosion. Wrex was hurtled back slamming into the silo, leaving a large dent in the metal. Garrus was flung back, his rifle trailing him, splashing into the water. Shepard was once again pushed back, his pistol slamming into his temple, knocking him to unconsciousness...once again. Tali wasn't so lucky. The force hit her in a concentrated direction leaving her sprawled across the water, her arm limp from dislocating her shoulder. She screamed in pain, clutching her useless arm in desperation. Liara sprung from hiding, and used her biotic energy to send a trio of beams towards Saren's direction. The Turian countered her move and met it with an equally blinding force. Saren pulled out a pistol and fired four rounds into her torso, tearing through her shields. Before he could put another shot into her, the pistol refused to fire another round. He looked down to see that the pistol was overloaded and damaged. In rising anger, he threw the pistol at the Asari, his biotic energy still glowing with life. He physically grabbed Liara and threw her to the ground, jabbing a foot into her gut repeatedly. He turned to face the Quarian with the glowing Omni-tool.

"You bitch." He growled as he walked to her. She pulled out her pistol with her good arm and fired. The pitiful rounds bounced off his shields like tossing little pebbles on a heavily armored tank. She dropped the pistol in a seeming submission of defeat. He grabbed the dislocated arm and hefted her up. She screamed in excruciating pain. She was prepared for this. She had secretly grabbed the knife from her leg before shooting at him and held it close. She heaved the knife to the side of his midsection. He didn't even mutter a yelp, but a change in expression from that of anger, to curiosity. He dropped Tali and looked at his fresh new wound. He took a few clumsy steps back before looking up towards the nuke now emitting a nasty sound. He growled and grabbed for his hover board, his hand now clutching the side of his midsection. Saren flew away. His injury was too great. He fell to his knees on his board, glaring at the Quarian who had injured him.

Tali looked around, fighting to keep consciousness due to the pain. The resistance from the Geth was getting stronger; their reinforcements were beginning to overthrow the marines' defense. This was it...they were all going to die here. She began to close her eyes to the rushing water but then the COM opened up.

"Normandy to Shepard, respond, over."

"Ground team 1 to Normandy, we are overrun...Be advised...we have 60 plus hostiles converging on our position...over." She strained to speak.

"This is Alenko! Approaching LZ with Chief Williams! We are almos-" The transmission was abruptly cut off by a large explosion.

"Alenko? Alenko? Respond!" Silence was met with the other end. "Damnit! Normandy to Ground Team 1, Hold on tight, were coming to get you." Joker replied, his voice stern. The COM clicked off. She smirked. Wasn't like Joker to be serious. She turned to face the large gate where Williams had gone off to find Alenko. They probably didn't mak-. The door opened revealing a large prototype tank. She wondered what other deadly experiments they preformed here...but it wouldn't matter. She could hear the faint screams in the thick of battle from marines yelling that there was a tank behind them. Bullets began peppering the armor. It looked almost annoyed.

"Oh...Keelah." She muttered as the Tank approached her. This is it; she thought...she cringed as she awaited the inevitability of her death. She felt the vibrations of a round exiting out of the large main gun, followed by a series of heavy machine gun fire. Her hearing failed her, leaving the dull ring of Shell shock as her suit sound resisters malfunctioned. She opened her eyes and found the tanks barrel pointing towards the Geth. She found Williams followed by other marines exiting out of the tank to help all the injured to cover, including her. She found Garrus and Wrex getting back up to re-enter the battle. She looked up to see the Normandy flying by firing slugs down toward the enemy position. Tali began losing consciousness, the light growing ever darker. Then a SNAP. Tali screamed at the pain and fought the hands that kept her down. She looked up to see Ashley's face screaming in front of her. The piercing sounds of battle began to recede back into her ears.

"Tali! How long do we have?" Ashley yelled screaming into Tali's visor mere inches away from her face. She stared blankly for a few seconds before responding.

"...Four to five minutes...no more." She mumbled, looking at her now relocated arm.

"Thanks...Where is Alenko?" Tali added.

"Helping me secure the LZ so we can get the hell outta here! Stay here!" Ashley yelled handing her a pistol. She turned to her right and found Shepard, Liara, and other marines, all too injured to fight. Tali got up slowly, stretching her bad arm, wincing under the pain. Garrus was near Tali, keeping cover for the injured. He noticed her attempt to get up and helped her. He handed the shotgun placed on his back, and continued to fire with his sniper rifle eliminating target after target. Shepard gasped for air as he woke leaning forwards before puking a pocket of blood. He clutched his stomach and looked around before reaching for his shotgun and getting up. Tali could hear the constant thump of rounds exiting out of the tank, explosions proceeding afterwards. Tali looked up at the sky and found the Normandy still hovering high over the LZ discharging its small armaments onto Geth Stragglers. She looked to her left and found that the large Gate door was opening. More Geth. They were out of time. Shepard analyzed their options and yelled to Tali to give him covering fire.

"They are coming from the side damnit! Suppressive fire! Get to the LZ now!" A marine barked. Tali ran out with Shepard close behind with Liara hoisted over his back. Garrus followed closely behind helping several marines up to their feet to the LZ. The tank turned to the new threat and fired its main gun. Pieces of synthetic parts flew haphazardly across the ground, the white fluid mixing with the rushing water. They ran as fast as they could through the white water towards the LZ, with Marines retreating back with them. The tank began to go in reverse, firing its heavy machine gun and HE rounds. The Geth jumped up on top of the vehicle and surrounded the overwhelmed tank. Tali saw in horror as the Marines occupying the tank tried to crawl out, only to be cut down by the Geth's fire. She looked around to see Wrex using a heavy machine gun spraying its large rounds into the large army of Geth advancing on him. He began trotting backwards, the gun continuing its endless spurt of slugs. She found out that Wrex was a distraction to let the rest of the wounded marines make their way from the silo to the LZ. It was working; so far. She continued running with Shepard and Garrus close behind her. The Normandy touched ground opening its cargo bay doors. 6 Marines emptied out of the Normandy aiding the ground team's efforts. She stops right before the opened door and waited for Shepard, Garrus, and the wounded marines to get in. The rest of the ground team was falling back on each other, their retreat a steady and slow process. The COM opened up, revealing Jokers voice.

"Come on guys! Hurry it up! We don't have much time!" He yelled, ushering others to hurry up. Wrex dropped the heavy gun and pulled out his Shotgun and shot the last round and climbed aboard. The Geth were getting dangerously close. Williams, Alenko and four other marines held their ground long enough for the others to board and began to fall back. Alenko noticed something. He glanced behind his shoulder and noticed the Geth were disarming the nuke. He stopped and turned around and found the Alarm emitting from the Nuke was silenced. Williams noticed his stop in retreat and grabbed his shoulder

"We got to get out of here! Now!" She screamed. She didn't notice the round that pierced through the right side of Alenko's chest. Alenko hardly noticed it either.

"No." Alenko replied, turning back around climbing into the Normandy.

"Joker! Fire forward batteries to clear the way! I'm getting the Mako to make sure that bomb goes off." Alenko said through his Head set.

Joker didn't reply. Two twin guns lowered from the nose of the Normandy and began to fire its slugs into the enemy.

"Alenko! Kaidan! What the hell are you doing?" Ashley screamed as he got in the Mako.

"It's too late for me anyways Ashley. I'm sorry." Kaidan looked down towards his Torso, a bleeding mess of where the round penetrated deep into his chest. He was only running on Medi-gel. Tears were streaming through her cheeks and she began to cry.

"No god damnit!" She yelled through her sobs. She tried to grab him, but he used his biotic powers to harmlessly lift her into the air. Alenko took one last look at his Friends; His Family, and closed the door to the Mako; driving off towards the Bomb. He would finish this mission; even at the expense of his life. Joker cleared a path long enough for the Mako to storm through. The Geth stragglers began to fire on the Mako as it dragged on towards the bomb. Garrus raised his sniper rifle and fired two rounds in quick succession eliminating two troopers that had disarmed the bomb. They all stared as the Cargo bay doors closed, leaving Alenko to arm the bomb by himself. The COM turned on and Alenko's voiced streamed through everyone's helmet.

"Proud to serve." Were his last strained words as he terminated the channel for the final time. The Normandy flew away, and for the next thirty seconds of which was an eternity, an explosion emitted from the planets surface.

Kaidan had succeeded.


	10. Section 8

**Chapter 14**

**12/9/2183**

**Location: Planet Ulipses**

She was due with a fever…but it wasn't bad. But the congested nose…the pressure in her sinuses...not to mention the rather pesky cough she now had was starting to try her patience. But the time she had with Shepard was not in vain…Even if all they did was fall asleep cuddling together. It was a shame she had to put on her mask afterwards. She wanted to ki-…She shook that memory out of her mind…She wanted too...but some feeling suppressed the encouragement…a feeling she couldn't explain. A frown drooped over her face with the negative consideration.

She sniffled a little bit focusing on something else. How dull. She sat under the nose of the Normandy, a shadow cascading over her and Garrus. They both leaned up against a cargo box, in a bunkered area, to look out towards the front of the landscape.

Garrus was snoring soundly while Tali fiddled with the dirt beneath her. She turned to look at Garrus. He was leaning over, dangerously close to smearing his face into the dirt. With a sigh, she grabbed his armored collar and slowly repositioned him to prevent his fall. He smacked his human's equivalent of lips and continued his nap, unaware of Tali's small save. Dropping the dirt and sand contained in her hands, she clapped them together and grabbed Garrus' Sniper Rifle. She looked through the scope and scanned the rather boring horizon. Something edged her thoughts about the Collectors. What were they waiting for? Why didn't they attack with a full force? Why didn't they just kill them from above with their ship? Why risk casualties? Several conclusions came to mind; picking out the most logical ones. Maybe they were testing them. Watching and learning from their foes. Like animals in a testing chamber...They, after all, were inexperienced with fighting against aliens they have never fought before…or at least thought they were.

Physiological warfare; seemed rational. Wait till their enemies morale is next to nonexistent to attack…That would tie in with her last conclusion: They needed something from them. She shuddered at the idea. Another theory popped in her head. Although it was a rather optimistic approach, it did seem rather realistic...Maybe they were not a primary focus…Maybe it was just a coincidence to how they arrived and how they crashed…But then, there was the drawback…none of these theories explained as to why those 'meteors'; as the crashed Normandy crew called them, acted the way they did. What were they testing? Were the two even related? She shook her head once more. Too many unknowns…too many variables…too many approaches. Nothing added up. Sooner or later, they would find out…for better or worse.

Her thoughts drifted back to the night before...A smile spread across her lips; the pure joy and happiness radiating within her was enough to send chills down her spine; the same feeling she got when she fell asleep cuddling with the Spectre. Her train of thought was interrupted with a sound emitting from Garrus. The soft sound of metal grinding on metal. Garrus had once again slumped to the side of the box and pushed his face into the grime and dirt. Subconsciously flicking her visor, she helped him back up. The process became tedious; but nevertheless, amusing to watch. This time he awoke from Tali's aide to move him upright. He yawned, his mandibles stretching at an awkward degree and slumped, smacking his 'lips'. He looked around examining his surroundings before muttering a sloppy sentence.

"What…What did I miss?"

"Nothing Garrus…Nothing at all." Tali replied, her voice void of any emotion.

"Oh."

She coughed slightly, and sniffled.

"Your not going to die on me now are you Tali?" He said, his concern showing a hint of sarcasm in his voice. Her voice sounded as if she didn't catch his jolt of mockery.

"I'll be fine." She folded her arms and laid her head back against the crate. She began twiddling her booted armored toes, staring intently at them. Garrus took notice of Tali's unusual movements and cleared his throat.

Garrus followed Tali's actions and twiddled his toes through his boots too. They both laughed afterwards. Their laughter subsequently stopped, leaving silence.

"I'm hungry" Garrus muttered clutching his stomach.

"Ditto..." Her voice trailed off.

"How many provisions do you have Tali? Your room was destroyed during our little accident..." he pointed up towards the nose of the ship looking at her.

"Not much…a weeks worth? That's if I strain my paste packets."

"And I don't have very many provisions I can offer you…hardly any of it is purified…"

"It's okay Garrus. Thanks for the offer anyways…soon enough it won't really matter either way."

Garrus shifted uneasily in his armor and grasped his binoculars looking out to the horizon.

"…sometimes I think our situation is in vain Tali. I've been thinking about our situation…I'm sure you have been too."

"What's on your mind?" She was curious with Garrus' opinion. He paused, and gave her a rhetorical statement.

"Why are we still alive? If you ask me…I think we should all have been dead along time ago." He rolled his neck in a circular motion clutching his armored collar and continued. "Not to sound pessimistic…but we don't have very many options left. Especially with the fact were…what's the phrase…sitting fucks?"

"You mean sitting ducks." She turned, her grin concealed by her visor.

"Oh yeah…that…I mean…the collectors have the advantage…we should have been cannon fodder for them…but…were still here." He turned his face revealing a Turian's way for showing deep concentration and concern. "Those Collectors want something. We just don't know what yet." Garrus folded his arms. "Your right Tali. We will find out one way or another; for better or for worse."

Tali shuddered.

"Well, it's your shift Garrus. I'm taking a nap. Wake me when something comes up." Tali slumped down; Her body now lying on a small sleeping pad next to her, resting her head on a small plastic box. To ease her mind of their troubles, she began to reminisce.

**Chapter 15**

**11/24/2183**

**Location: Planet Ulipses**

Wrex's belching became ever more apparent as the Krogan consumed more and more alcohol. The Quarian stared finding the spectacle rather amusing to look at. It was November 24. Thanksgiving day for Humans…She didn't know the details; but she did know that the holiday was of great importance, and was to be celebrated by a large feast of food.

A week prior to hearing of this special event, she frowned, assuming that she couldn't take part in the celebration. Shepard promised her that he would find something for her to eat during the crews leave on the citadel for the celebration. She contemplated about how the idea could be possible, but she let the problem lean on Shepard. She knew that Shepard's understanding of Quarian biology and Suit use was well-rounded. The celebration date was coincidence; it just happened that Shepard needed to report back to the council for their mission. Shepard expanded the time on the Citadel from two days, to twelve days mainly for "Thanksgiving."

Wrex once more belched; the loudest and longest of them all. The end of his large escape of gas was preceded afterwards with a small applause and howls of laughter. Funny to see a Krogan Battle-Master drunk. Especially Wrex. She turned to see the rest of her crew. Liara was nibbling on a cookie, Garrus was leaning back, drinking large quantities of alcohol, with a 'Pilgrim's Hat' placed clumsily on his head. To compensate for the head fringe, they placed a small band to tie around chin to keep the hat leveled on his head. She grinned at Garrus' drunkenness. She turned to see Engineer Adams, a respected crew member among the Normandy eating large morsels if meat smothered in brown sauce. She couldn't keep up with everyone in the room. The entire crew was in the conference room and Communications hub. She then turned her focus on their Commander. Shepard …she paused with his name. Time slowed for her as she scrutinized the commander's presence and happiness that ensued around him. She mentally kicked herself out of her trance with the commander and yelled at herself. "_It will never reciprocate you Bosh'tet. Get over it._" Yet she found herself staring at him once again…too entranced to let her gaze wander elsewhere. She sipped on her Ginger-Ale, the closed container funneling straight through her rubber straw. He had promised her a meal and he did. Although the meal only consisted of flavored paste...it was better than nothing...and it tasted rather good...better than the bland paste she always ate anyways...Still hungry, she sighed wondering whether it was worth it to stay.

The party continued for another hour before Garrus had to be dragged to bed with Wrex tripping under his feet following two crew members. The crew parted either by going to sleep or relaxing to the comfort of their shore leave. Some crew members got off of the Normandy to the clubs in the citadel to party the night away.

* * *

Tali had returned to her room before realizing that she had forgotten to retrieve her portable computer from the main deck of the CIC. But before she turned to leave she saw a note in Quarian writing posted on her Clean room door.

The handwriting was rather neat...but she could tell it was not from a Quarian hand...one, her being the only Quarian on the ship, and two that it not having a flow of a structured rhythm. Grabbing the sticky note off of her door she read it.

_Hi Tali..._

_I decided to take a chance in writing in your native tongue...not too difficult, just time consuming really. I didn't think the paste I gave you during the main course was satisfying to eat, so I kept your real meal a surprise...although I regret you not being able to share this with the company of your fellow crew mates._

_Enjoy._

_P.S._

_There was a fellow Quarian on the Citadel when I was looking for something to get you. Guess it was a coincidence or something when I found him...said he knows you. Asked him what you Quarians like to eat and said that Phakah, Lisep s'hjot, and Seklai were really good choices...So I got them...Ready, hot and fresh. He told me to say hi to you... His name is Giseck'Keeysu...he's on his pilgrimage. He told you to wish him luck too._

_Sincerely,_

_Commander Shepard._

Sighing happily for the commander's sincerity, and the reminder of her old best friend, she folded the note carefully in her pocket and decided that her computer could wait. Opening the door she found a small table suspending a large meal of cloth covered Quarian cuisine; the steam still rising from the food. Her mouth began to water, and she quickly stepped inside, rushing for the cleaning system to take its tedious process to complete.


	11. Section 9

Tali woke up. Garrus was gone. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the light around her. It was dead silent. She slowly rose to her feat, gripping the handle of her shotgun close to her body. With effort, she climbed out of the trench up a steep slope towards the entrance of the Normandy. Where was everybody? Her contempt settles in, and she raises her shotgun to scan the area around her. _What? Where is...Where is everybody? _She asks herself with more persistency than panic. She found Garrus lying on the ground. She rushes to him, finding him unconscious, his hands still holding his assault rifle. _What the hell happened? Why the hell wasn't I awake for this? _

"Garrus..." She whimpered, dropping her shotgun to roll Garrus over. "Garrus...wake up..." She found him breathing. Good sign. She examined his body for any structural damage with her omni-tool and found none. She slowly grabbed the pits of his arms and dragged him up towards the entrance to the Normandy.

"Garrus..." her voice was strained. "You're really heavy..." She pulled his body repeatedly, muttering a word with every pull. "And...Your....armor...isn't...helping..." She finally made it and dropped the upper portion of his body. A satisfying clunk told Tali he made ground. She opened the door to the Normandy, her shotgun at eye level. Scanning the interior of the ship, she slowly continued, checking every corner she came across by. It was just...Empty...Everything empty...Save for the Asari slumped on the metal floor. Tali doesn't let her guard down. She slowly approaches her fallen comrade and looks around before examining her. Looking to see if she was still breathing, she glanced towards the door that would lead her to the second level of the ship. She left Liara and slowly went down towards the stairs. The overwhelming amount of confusion worried her greatly, but she pushed on. Wrex... He lay against a wall in between the meeting of the two sets of stairs in front of the elevator. She comes up in front of him and whimpers his name. "Wrex?"

His eyes shoot open; an even darker shade of red within his eye captures Tali's attention and backs off. He looks around briefly getting to his feet.

"What happened?" She asked.

"You tell me." He muttered looking around at his surroundings.

"Where is the crew?" She looks around, asking another question.

"Hell if I know...Is it just you and me?" Wrex looks pointing at her.

"No...Garrus and Liara are upstairs."

"I'm guessing unconscious."

"How do you know?"

"There not down here." He muttered, his heavy footsteps climbing up the stairs. She could hear his large rifle unclasp itself. She followed closely behind, feeling safer now that she had a conscious companion. Then she mentally smacked herself for not thinking about it earlier...Shepard...She turned around quickly turning towards his room, almost restraining herself from running.

"Where are you going?" Wrex asked not bothering to turn around to look at her.

"Shepard..." she muttered skipping steps down the stairs.

She bursts into his room.

_Nothing._

She slumps to the floor, her shotgun clattering next to her. She stares blankly off into space, thinking about how this could have been avoided. She suppressed her fear, her tears, and her panic and replaced it with blinding anger. After a moments thought, she got up, picking up her weapon and slowly walked out of the room. She brushes past the large Krogan and makes her way up to the stairs. Opening the door, she finds Liara kneeling on all fours, slowly trying to get up. She walks past her too, all thoughts trained on that damned Turian.

She finds him where she left him; at the base of the entrance of the Normandy, both his hands clasped over his face, massaging his 'temples'.

"Why didn't you wake me?" She yelled. Her anger startled Garrus.

"What are you talking about Tali? I..." He was cut off.

"Why didn't you wake me? What the hell happened?" She found herself pointing her finger mere inches away from the Turian's face. He slowly pushed the hand away from him.

"I don't know any more than you do Tali."

"You were right next to me when I fell asleep!" She raised her arms in the air, to emphasize her anger. Garrus Stared at her, contemplating over his actions.

"Tali. I woke up sitting at the entrance of the ship. I wasn't even with you when this-"He raised his hands around the room. "-happened! Much less do I even remember anything!"

"Damn right you woke up next to the door! I dragged you here you Bosh'tet!"

"What the hell does that even mean?"

She turned away from him folding her arms across her chest. She examined their situation. The entire Normandy crew including Shepard was missing, excluding the non-humans. The non-humans...She strained the importance of that. Everyone was left but the non-humans...

"Why are we still alive?" She choked, realization dawning on her. "Why didn't they kill us?" She brought herself up to the wall and emptied her anger. With clenched fists, she pounded her knuckles, slightly denting the metal. Her hand throbbed; but it felt good. "Those bastards are toying with us." She hissed, staring at the others. She grabbed the shotgun from her back and walked outside. The others followed quietly, still recovering from their incident.

* * *

He stood up, scrutinizing the humans in the pods. He turned to face the final one and brought his attention to the pad illuminating in front of him. Commander Shepard.

"Your reputation has perceived you well." He quirked; examining the unconscious human. He placed his hand on the murky glass of the pod. "If only we had a hundred of you."

"Not even." A voice came from behind him. He turned to the voice and stared at his subordinate approaching.

"Yes you are quite right. What brings you here?" He said, returning his gaze to the fascinating human in the shell.

"Status update."

"Continue, my time is strained."

"The Hashvesks have nearly completed their manipulation to the Planet's core."

"Good. Good. They will be pleased to hear our progress. Inform them. Inform Harbinger."

"Yes. It will be done."

"One other thing." He looked at his subordinate, his eyes, glowing an even more sickly yellow to that of his comrade.

"Keep track of Shepard's Companions. We must examine their progress."

"What for?" The subordinate asked.

"To study." He turned back around to face the Alliance Hero.

"Is that all?"

Yes. Leave." His subordinate left, leaving him alone with only the humans placed haphazardly around the area. He brushed his claws against the glass, scraping off pieces of grime from the surface.

"In good time Commander. In good time." He whispered, walking into the inky blackness.

* * *

Gah! I am so sorry this is so short! I have been really busy! No. Thats an understatement. I was soooo busy, I can't even begin to describe how busy I was.

Well here you go. For you people who like this story, It will sully your anticipation for the big chapter that will be presented soon...hopefully. Comment and stuff, I would appreciate it a lot; however it is not necessary.


	12. Section 10

"Look at our odds." Garrus shook his head to the probability. "How could this possibly work?"

"Trust me." Tali replied "We all have plenty of motivation for this to work."

The Mako Jumped, jostling its passengers rather violently.

"Damnit." Garrus hissed as he recovered from the blow to his head.

"Drive slower." Liara insisted.

"Every second we waste is a second the Shepard and his crew are in trouble." Tali said as she turned her head to face the Asari. She sighed and nodded her head, returning back to face the diagnostic screen for the Mako. Tali returned her gaze to the front of the thick windshield before her. It was dark outside. The interior of the windshield displayed a form of night vision, a pixilated image splashing onto the windows. She sighed silently as everyone stopped speaking. The silence was easy to keep but hard to bear on. It continued for another two minutes. An eternity.

Wrex broke the silence.

"Whats the Plan?"

"Haven't gotten that far yet." Garrus continued to drive, his eyes focused on the environment in front of him.

"It's a good time to think of one now. Going out there without a plan is as good as going blind."

"What do you have in mind Wrex?" Tali asked, replying for Garrus.

"Liara looked over the surveillance data we set up to over look the Collectors. They have a base for ground operations. They transport supplies to and from the ship. That's our ticket in."

"Do we even have the power to do something like that?" Tali liked the idea, but it seemed a bit...farfetched.

"We got the Mako, and four experienced soldiers. We also defeated a damned reaper. I say we can handle one small base."

"Can't argue with those facts." Garrus chimed in. A smile perked across Tali's lips.

An explosion, then another. Garrus swerved the vehicle dodging the incoming fire. Wrex turned the turret around looking for targets.

"Two gun ships! On our damned Tail!" Wrex yelled.

"Take them out Wrex, I can't hold like this forever!" He swerved again to knock their aim off balance. The explosions were replaced by sickly yellow beams, attempting to penetrate the Mako's armor and Shielding. The sound of their return fire was dulling out the sound of everything else. A rumble of large pieces of shrapnel hit the ground, shaking the Mako.

"One down! Take it!" Wrex yelled, continuing his barrage of heavy machine gun fire and tank rounds. Tali glanced at the rear view screen and saw the heavy gun ship, hovering closely behind them. The only thing keeping them from getting destroyed was the Terrain. It was rough and rocky, often allowing the Mako to receive welcomed amounts of cover, blocking the Gun ship's aim. Garrus took the next available left. An unavoidable mistake. The path had lead them into open ground now. Not good.

'We don't have cover here! Wrex, you have to take that thing down now!" Garrus yelled. The gun ship flew ahead of them, dropping down little pieces of...something Tali couldn't make out.

"What the hell are those?" Garrus looked, as the HUD picked out each piece flying out of the gun ship with a square.

"I'd rather not find out!" Tali screamed. "Brace damnit! Brace!" She grabbed the handle for the thrusters and yanked. The boosters roared to life sending the Mako in the air. Wrex continued to fire, oblivious of their gained position in height. Liara suppressed a scream, uttering only a yelp. Garrus stared at the wind shield menacingly, glancing at Tali's action. The Mako smashed at the bottom side of the Gun-ship, knocking the Collector vehicle off balance, slamming it into a cliff side. The vehicle suddenly jerked a hard left landing into the ground. The Mako made ground and veered to a stop near the crashed Collector ship. The side hatch of the Mako opened, allowing Wrex to jump out with his shotgun in hand. He charged, running towards the rubble. A collector pushed out of the fiery junk, only to be met by Wrex's hard fists and shotgun blast. Its leg exploded, sending bits of organic flesh into the air. Before it could fall, Wrex smashed his fist into the skull, crushing one of its eyes in the process. It muttered a scream, and was silenced by another shotgun blast to it head. Tali didn't watch the spectacle and turned away before she could see Wrex finish his dirty work. Garrus Approached from behind Tali with his sniper rifle in hand.

"We made it this far and I'm curious as to what the Gun ship tried to drop on us." He hefted the rifle carefully and took aim at the small smooth spherical pods it had dropped.

"They look a little funny." He said and fired. The bullet was met with a small electrical explosion. "Huh." Is all Tali could muster to say. Garrus looked on the ground and hefted a heavy piece of metal. He threw at the small pods. As it had landed, the pods sprang to action, clinging to the metal and disintegrating the large piece of shrapnel. The two looked in shock over what it had done. Garrus activated his COM to Liara.

"Liara, get in the turret and take aim at those pod things the Collectors threw at us." Liara answered by turning the turret sharply a round and firing a trio of slugs at the pods. Explosions of electricity enveloped the ground sending yellow sparks dancing around the area. Garrus patted Tali on the shoulder. "Good job Tali. We would all be melting carapaces right now if it weren't for you."

"Thank you." She sighed "We better get back into the Mako. We attracted a lot of attention. And they'll send out a team to investigate."

"They already know were attacking." Wrex said coming from behind the two. "and it's too bad too. They're going to know what hits 'em now." Wrex chuckled as he clumsily climbed back into the cramped space.

* * *

"Everything working on your end? How's the infiltration working out?" Garrus piped in through the COM.

"So far so good." Wrex answered his whispers an audible growl.

"Okay. Good. Waiting on you. Out." Garrus terminated the channel and leaned back in the chair and looked over at Tali.

"You ready Tali?"

"Wh-...uh....yes...Yes I am."

"A little nervous there Tali; you okay?"

"I...I don't know."

"What's on your mind? Don't encase what you're feeling. Don't want you focused on something else besides this."

"I want to tell you...it just that...well...I can't really explain..." Tali stuttered and writhed her hands together uneasily.

"Tali; were friends. We've saved each other a countless amount times and taken bullets together. Don't tell me you can't share a few simple words with me." Garrus brought his hands back behind his head. A series of cracks were heard afterwards with a sigh of satisfaction.

"I don't...I don't think you would understand..." She bit her lip. Nervousness and anticipation were getting the best of her. She wanted to talk to Garrus about her...well...her attraction towards Shepard...but how could she? Is that really appropriate to talk about right now? And how would Garrus react to that? She was worried. No. She was beyond worried. She was worried about her life, her friends, her crew, her ship...but most importantly, she was worried about Shepard.

"Try me. I've heard about everything with my work at C-Sec. You're not going to surprise me."

"Well...I'm...I have feelings fo-" She was interrupted by COM static.

"We're ready. Get prepared." Liara called through the radio. Tali felt relieved, but at the same time disappointed. She wanted to tell Garrus; they were great friends even after their unhealthy animosity towards each other when they first met. She could remember it now as if it were only yesterday.

* * *

"The Quarians endangered the entire galaxy when they let the Geth break free. I hope your people are properly contrite, Tali." Garrus said his voice almost void of any emotion. That hit her like a block of metal to the stomach. How could he be so naive about something like that? Quarians continue to suffer to this day even after 300 years of exile; and to pay for it, they lost their immunity, their reputation, their lives...and so, so much more she didn't even want to remind herself of...She bit back a tear and replied with an equally mocked tone as Garrus'.

"As the Turian's are properly contrite for releasing the Genophage upon the Krogan?" She smirked as she folded her arms and turned to face him.

"You're assuming that sterilizing them was a mistake." Garrus added his face turning to meet hers. She dropped it. The Krogan were dangerous. In a way, he was right. Damn it.

"Both of your accusations are justified. Now make nice." Shepard piped in before turning back around. They both looked at each-other. Garrus extended his hand. She looked at it, and contemplated about slapping it away. But that would be immature and downright wrong. She had respected Garrus; she saw the way he fought, and how astounding he was with Tech too. She grabbed his hand firmly and shook it. Some how the human gesture Garrus used was satisfying and relieved the animosity that built between the two amicably. Or...at least that's what she felt like.

"Sorry Tali. I shouldn't have said that. That's no better than blaming a father's child for Murder.

"Likewise Garrus. I shouldn't have said what I said either." She smiled and nodded her head. Garrus turned his mandibles to an odd degree; a way a Turian 'smiled' she guessed. The elevator door opened and they walked out into the presidium.

* * *

She shook her head out of that thought. No time now.

"Okay Liara. Were ready." Garrus turned to look at Tali for a long time and turned back. His Hands clenched on the steering wheel. Something he always did before he went on a mission.

"It's no secret Tali. No need in hiding it." He shifted in the chair.

"Really? Is it that painfully obvious?" Tali looked over hoping for some lead on. Garrus turned to meet her face.

"Yes." He turned back to look out through the windshield. She didn't know what to think, but she didn't have the time. The Mako jerked as they both saw an explosion in the distance.

"There going to need help. We have to go. Now. Tali get in the turret." She responded to his command; instantly crawling over to the Turret seat.

"Resistance encountered! We're holding!" Liara exclaimed through the COM.

"Copy Liara, were going now." Garrus accelerated the Mako, causing the tires to grind against the rubble before catching ground. With a sudden jerk forward, they were on their way.

"I hope this works." Tali sighed.

* * *

Her glow of biotics was apparent as she lifted another group of collectors to float helplessly up into the air. Wrex focused his attention to the floating group and hefted his heavy assault rifle and fired a long satisfying burst. The bodies exploded, leaving bloody masses of pulp to slump onto the cold barren ground. Wrex used his own biotics as he thrust his hand into the air bringing contact onto a collector's skull while sending him backwards into another approaching squad of aliens. Wrex reloaded his rifle before firing into the squad. With his free hand he grabbed his SMG and cradled it in his arm before depleting the heat sink into his flank where four more collectors were approaching. Liara threw her biotics towards the advancing collectors. As they floated effortlessly into the air, she threw three grenades towards their direction. A rewarding series of explosions proceeded afterwards.

"Garrus! You need to hurry! We can't hold out much longer!" Liara yelled through the radio.

"Can't hold out much longer? What are you talking about?" Wrex growled, lifting a Collector into the air and throwing the body into a cargo box. The collector lacked the proper response and Wrex crushed its chest with his armored boot and fired a point-blank shotgun blast into its head. He placed his shotgun on his back before grabbing for his assault rifle.

"Let them take their damned time. I'm just warming up." Wrex turned around to see eight collectors make their approach to the ever growing threat.

"Come on assholes." He threw his assault rifle to his choice of target. The weapon smashed with incredible force upon contact with the collectors head. Wrex heard the gratifying crack of bone as he continued to charge. He brought his foot up and smashed one of the collector's knees, causing him to fall under the broken limb. They Krogan finished his move with his biotics; forcing the rest of group to fall to the ground by the sheer force of his biotic push. He caught his rifle before it fell to the ground and fired until his heat sink failed him.

"Damn I'm good." Wrex muttered to himself before ejecting the thermal clip.

He looked up to see his new threat. This one was different from the others...Flames engrossed his body...Pieces of synthetic and organic material intertwined with each other...Before Wrex did anything it spoke to him.

**"You will know pain."**

**

* * *

  
**

The Mako jumped over the barrier of the base and made it into the vehicle depot. It slid to a halt next to a gun ship.

"Come on, let's get..." Garrus looked and saw Collectors noticing their infiltration.

"Damnit...Tali, your going to have to cover me, I'm getting that gun-ship."

"Garrus! No...You can't!"

"It's either that or we all die in vain. Cover me!" Garrus jumped out of the Mako with his Omni-tool activated and his rifle in his hands, sprinting towards one of the many Gun-ships in the area. Tali turned the turret around to face the collectors.

"Come and get it you Bosh'tets." She pulled both triggers. The collectors fell during their advance, a splitting mess of organic mush spraying across the ground. She fired the main gun into one collector. It disappeared under the explosion, leaving a hazy mist of black blood. Others were ripped apart simply by the concussion. She swiveled the turret around to face her flank and fired. She fired the machine gun into the crowd of enemies. There were growing in numbers...for every one she killed two more seemed to take its place. She glanced to see if Garrus was alright. When she looked she could see several collector bodies littering the floor around him. She guessed those were the ones she missed. She fired and drove them back behind cover. She smiled as she saw their fatal flaw. A gunship parked right next to their cover. She fired into what she guessed was the propulsion system. The fuel sparked to life activating the propulsion and rocketed towards the group. The gun-ship exploded leaving bits and pieces of fire raining about.

"Damn Tali...Nice show. I'd like to see how you do when you're pissed off." He continued to work with his omni-tool, finding a way to hack into the gun-ship's systems.

"Help!" Liara screeched through the COM.

"Status?" Tali said, after fumbling with her radio.

"I'm...Were....He...Wre....is....ead...can't...hold out!"

"Hold on Liara! We're coming!"

"Garrus! How long before you can get into the Gun-ship?" Tali yelled her voice becoming desperate.

"I don't know! Ten minutes max! Go help Liara and Wrex!"

"I'm not leaving you!" Tali yelled.

"Don't worry about me! I'll be right behind you!"

"You better be." She muttered, scooting herself into the driver seat. The Mako roared, and drove off, leaving Garrus alone.

"There we go! I got it!" His success was killed as he saw the yellow beam fly by his head. He jumped to cover; bringing his rifle up to bear. He took a chance to look over his barricade. Seeing the chance present itself, he whipped out of cover and fired a long burst towards his opponent. More rounds flew by his side. He was exposed. He fired at his flank as he saw one collector reveal himself. They were beginning to surround him.

"Not this time." Garrus rolled out of cover into the gunship, closing the armored door behind him. He turned on the flying vehicle and watched as the Weapons warmed up.

Tali drove through the small temporary building. She swerved to the left and slammed into a collector. The upper half of the broken body slithered across the windshield before falling off.

She followed the navigation point on her heads up display, while keeping track of the vehicles now in pursuit behind her.

"Bastards!" She continued driving as the armored vehicles continued to trail her. She turned the Mako to the hard left and activated the thrusters to jump over a wall.

"Liara! Status! Are you okay?" Tali was only met with static. "Damnit." She hissed, her mouth dripping with venom as anger was starting to take a toll on her. She took the corner. It was a dead end. She didn't have much time. She climbed to the Turret seat and waited for the Collector's to make their approach. As soon as she saw one of them take the corner she fired. The sheer force in the change of inertia sent the collector vehicle flipping over smashing into the front of the Mako. Tali braced for the collision. She glanced over at the diagnostics to the Mako. No collateral damage. Good.

The second vehicle took the corner more cautiously, and fired. Tali's eyes grew wide in horror as she saw the spherical pods jump out of the barrel. She opened the hatch quickly and jumped out. The Pods latched onto the Mako and began eating away at the vehicle. The metal boiled and melted, leaving the vehicle a mess of useless rubble. The Collector tank turned its attention to Tali. Before she could react, a gun ship roared over head and fired three ion beams into the tank, melting the armor. The Tank imploded, throwing shrapnel everywhere. Tali jumped happily to see Garrus had successfully got the gun-ship.

A trembling noise escaped from the right of Tali. She whipped her shotgun out of instinct to face her new threat. Wrex had busted through the wall his hands on some kind of...collector. As the two fell to the ground. Wrex raised his shotgun like a club and beat the mesh of organic and synthetic materials into a pulp.

"'You will know pain' my ass." Wrex grumbled getting off of the disintegrating body. Liara stepped through the rubble quickly firing her pistol in quick succession at the collectors that trailed behind them closely.

"We have to go now!" Liara yelled as she changed her heat sink. Garrus landed on the ground for the group to climb aboard.

"Get on!" Garrus yelled waving for the others. Tali nearly tripped over herself as she clambered aboard the ship. She grabbed for Liara's arm; hefting her onto the platform. Wrex handled himself, slowly stepping back as he finally stepped onto the vehicle.

"Were getting the hell out of here! Hold on!" Garrus yelled, boosting the thrusters. They were lifted higher into the atmosphere, leveling the Ship with the bottom of the Large Collector Vessel.

"Shouldn't we worry about somebody getting on our Tail?" Wrex exclaimed pointing towards the base.

"Nope. Had time to fry the rest of their vehicles." Garrus turned around in the seat and flickered his mandibles. They looked up to see the vast size of the vessel.

"Should have written my will when I had the chance." Garrus muttered.

* * *

Holy cow. I looked over my entire story and made some modifications to it. Not big ones...but ones you should be able to notice. Not asking you guys to re-read the story...But I thought I would just let you guys know.

Thanks Guys. Hoping you guys like the story so far. :D


	13. Section 11

**Chapter 15**

**12/10/2183**

**Location: Planet Ulipses**

Alcohol. Soothing in terms of dulling your feelings...yet a tangible burning in your throat as a constant reminder of what was lost in your thoughts... Anderson took another long swig of his drink before rubbing the back of his neck.

* * *

"Damned pretenses..." He scoffed....The Turian's councilor's exact words before turning around and leaving the stand. Anderson stood motionless eyeing the Turian councilor as he left his post. He imagined beating the arrogant bastard with a sledgehammer...No...that was undermining it.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Anderson pointed toward the Turian that had stopped in his tracks; his back still facing him. "Is this the best you can do to repay your debt?" Anderson crossed his arms; content with his comeback. The other councilors stared at what seemed to be anticipation for the upcoming dispute. Anderson frowned when he heard the response from the Turian: A big mocking laugh.

"This isn't a matter of repaying 'debt', Captain." The Turian continued to glare menacingly. "Shepard is more than capable of monitoring not only himself, but his entire crew. We have his eternal gratitude." Anderson was left speechless as the Councilor left; exiting through the side platform door. The Asari that stood adjacent from the Salarian spoke. "This concludes the meeting." She said before exiting out the same door. The Salarian followed closely behind her. Anderson was left staring at this shoes...Again.

* * *

The alcohol was burning images into his mind, one he remembered particularly too well...he drifted to sleep; one hand holding onto the bottle of his drink, the other his empty glass.

* * *

Explosions. No time to get into armor...His fatigues would have to do. He grabbed for his pistol and stormed off into the outside. The constant sounds of screaming...the disorganized crowds...and the C-sec officers trying to usher the crowd under control to get them off of the Citadel... A Quarian bumped into him.

"What's going on?" The Quarian's voice barely audible over the crowd. Anderson looked to the Quarian's faceplate....it was...transparent...

"Geth attack!" He answered finally.

"Wh...what?"

"You heard me! Geth attack!" Anderson looked up to see the battle raging in the 'sky'. Anderson pointed up; the Quarian following the trace of his finger; drawn by the rage of the battle. Anderson was tackled and thrown to the floor. The Quarian helped him back up.

"Keelah...Bassip sefalu ka Sephloma Bashama..."

"What? I didn't catch that..." Everyone instinctively ducked as they saw a Geth drop ship hover over them. C-sec officers aimed and fired as Geth troopers were hurtled towards the surrounding buildings; effectively pinning down the helpless crowds into a deadly crossfire.

"We have to go now!" Anderson yelled, grabbing for the Quarian's arm and running into one of the nearby buildings.

"Nyalas bassip Pasha?"

"I don't understand you..." Anderson found his translator damaged; probably after being accidentally tackled when he was out in the crowd.

"Speh Sefalu Chitda Mi?"

Anderson pointed to his ear and shrugged. She seemed to understand the gesture. She waved him over with his hand as she unholstered her SMG.

"I'm getting to old for this."

"Mea Yano Speh Dulra."

"You can still understand me?"

"Gali."

"I'll take that as a yes..." Anderson looked around the corner carefully before continuing down the corridor with the Quarian following closely. "Whats your name?"

"Nabi'Adda nar Somma."

"Okay Nabi...we are getting out of here, okay?" Foot steps and a mechanical clattering; the Geth were here. Nabi's grip on her weapon tightened. Anderson swung his pistol into the direction of the sound.

"They're upstairs...come on; we can avoid them if we hurry..." He whispered gently and ran across the entrance of the stairs and took a left with Nabi following suit.

"Fantastic." He muttered before kneeling down to open the underground tunneling. Nabi knelt down next to Anderson, her weapon still lingering towards the door. With a heave, Anderson opened the metal grate and jumped inside. Nabi did the same.

"Nabi, close the door...Cover our tracks..." She nodded and grabbed for the door, gently closing it. Anderson activated his Omni-tool and looked at the mapping of their location.

"Were close to the evacuation docks, we need to hurry, or it'll be too late." He began jogging; occasionally ducking from pipes strewn across the small dimly lit corridor. More mechanical stuttering. The two froze. The human slowly approached the meeting of two hallways. He took a peak around the corner. 3 Geth soldiers slowly advancing on them. Anderson viewed his options. Go back; tracing their footsteps, or rush through and fight the 3 soldiers. His heart skipped a beat as he saw the one of the troopers. He was seen. He tackled the trooper with his gun drawn; pressing the muzzle down into its single glowing eye. He fired twice; the barrel of the weapon too close for the shielding to deflect the rounds. The troopers head disintegrated as they both fell; leaving the two sprawled across the floor. Anderson wrapped the Geth soldier's body over his, for makeshift armor as the other two soldiers reacted.

"Nabi!" He hissed. Her gun screamed as rounds began to exit out of her weapon; gunning down the two remaining soldiers. Anderson still lay across the floor, his body under the dead trooper. Nabi approached her kills; nodded in satisfaction and then helped Anderson up. He silently picked up the trooper's rifle and its heat sinks.

"Thank you, Nabi; we're almost there, come on."

* * *

He opened the latch to the ceiling's door and cautiously glanced around.

"It's clear for the moment, Nabi, let's go..." He clambered out of the small hole and helped Nabi out.

"Where is everybody?" Anderson hissed, his rifle scanning the large docking bay.

"Jajuma..." Nabi replied uneasily. Anderson turned to see what Nabi was staring at. Anderson stood, gaping at the sight; the armored bodies of C-sec officers massacred by Geth weapon's fire.

"Damnit..." he muttered before turning to the escape vehicles. "Nabi, prep the ship, I'll check the perimeter..." He began to check the entrances and his corners; occasionally staring at Nabi preparing the necessary arrangements to leave the Station. Motorized Stuttering...Geth began to fill the room.  
"Nabi! Hurry!" Anderson yelled firing his Rifle at the enemy in quick succession.

"Oh Keelah!" She stammered, firing her SMG over her head while hiding behind the large console. Anderson stole his chance to look at the large light on top of the ship change from Orange to blue signifying the ship was ready to go. He looked to see the Quarian waiting for him to come.

"Mulsha Bah!" She yelled waving him over as she stood at the door of the ship. He was only twenty-five feet away...could he make it? No. he couldn't.

"Just go! I can take care of myself! Just go!"

"Liga, Speh Bosh'tet!" She looked around and realized there was no way he could make it without getting killed. Tears began to streak across her cheeks.

"Just go..." Anderson managed to smile. "I'll be fine!"

"Keelah Se'lai..." The door closed in front of her and the ship was jettisoned out into space. Anderson fired the rifle in his hands until the heat sink ejected itself. He looked back at the small grate that Nabi and Anderson had come out of. Without a second thought he jumped back inside and closed it behind him.

* * *

"Over there. That looks like an entrance."

The Gun-ship jerked towards the direction of the collector base.

"Someone get on the turret; someone's got to cover our asses when we're getting off."

"I'll do it." Tali remarked, carefully edging to the turret. Wrex nodded before grabbing for his assault rifle.

"My favorite part of the day." He grunted as he replaced the heat sink into his weapon. The Quarian bleakly stared at the burning base before placing her hands on the turret. The sun emerged from the horizon... It was beautiful. To bad she couldn't enjoy it under better circumstances. Her gaze was rudely impeded when the collector ship had moved in front of the view.

"Were receiving flak!" Garrus yelled turning his head back to face Tali. "Return the favor!" Tali pulled the trigger and heard a whir escape from the mechanism. After a lapse of two seconds, it fired a thick sickly yellow beam. Her facial expression shot out in surprise; Impressive. She aimed the weapon towards the direction of fire. The beam made contact with the intertwined metal and rock that flowed around the muddled space ship. Small explosions and fire followed the beam afterwards as it continued to burn through the metal.

"Damn!" Wrex yelled looking as Tali continued to fight. Garrus answered to his cheer "Were too close for their Barriers to do anything." Tali smirked.

"I'm not very warmed up to these controls guys...expect a little...'turbulence' when we land." Garrus glanced quickly at the others. Troublesome faces plastered discontent with Garrus' unnecessary comment.

"Maybe I shouldn't have said anything...we'll see when we get there."

She stopped firing when the resistance ended abruptly.

Have to be careful...Shepard and the crew could be in there somewhere. She doubted they would be that easily exposed...but still; better safe than sorry.

"I'm pulling in! Brace!" Garrus jerked the ship to a hard left.

"Slow down damnit! Were going in too fast!" Wrex yelled, his eyes piercing a bloody red as the Ship closed the gap between the two. They entered the ship with immense speed. Screeching metal and small explosions radiated around them; their only defense to clutch on to whatever they could to keep themselves from violently thrashing around inside the vehicle. Tali shrieked in panic as she saw Wrex's body hurtle towards her.

"Keelah..." She muttered before bracing herself. The body never hit her. She eventually looked up to see Wrex encased in a blue glow. Liara had saved her. The vehicle finally came to a halt.

"I think I....I think I..." Garrus fell out of his seat and clutched his side. "Damnit..." He looked at his bloody hand before grabbing the small pole that had entered his chest...Tali rushed to his aide already in the process of preparing a dose of Medi-gel.

"Quite the flying there Garrus..." Her voice said unsteadily. "Garrus...I'm going to have to pull it out." Garrus' eyes looked up to her. "Yeah..." He pulled it out himself and winced sharply; suppressing a Scream. Tali glanced behind her to see that Wrex and Liara had already set a perimeter around the crashed gun-ship.

"You better hurry it up guys! They'll be here soon!" Wrex yelled; his disembodied voice booming through the halls of the collector ship. Tali looked back down and squeezed the gel into his wound. A groan escaped from Garrus and he slowly stood up.

"Thanks Tali..." Tali tapped him on the shoulder and grabbed for her shotgun...Damnit...pistol? Shit....

"Where are my guns?" Tali frantically looked around the crashed ship for her weapons.

"Must have either been destroyed or lost during the crash..." Garrus unshouldered his rifle before stepping off the ship. "Were going to have to find you a new one." Tali's hands clenched. She was useless now...well...almost useless. "I still got my omni-tool...and my knife." Garrus' daze fell to the knife that she held in her hands.

"Tali; make sure that doesn't end up in my groin like last time...you know...for sentimental reasons..." Garrus' mandibles flickered. Tali couldn't help but utter a small chuckle.

"Okay Garrus. No promises though."

* * *

They haven't attacked yet...eerie." Garrus stared at the agonizingly grotesque features of the ship. It was surprise how they kept this hunk of metal and rock running. It looked more like an underground cave than an advanced space-faring ship. Scratch that. This couldn't be advanced...or could it? Not like it really mattered at the moment.

"Stop...Hear that?" Garrus turned to see Wrex's hand rise up to stop the others from advancing. Garrus held his breath to try and hear what Wrex had heard. Nothing.

"No...What does it sound like?" Garrus whispered to Wrex. The Krogan held his posture steadily before answering.

"Sounds like soft screeching..." A hovering octagonal like platform flew by them.

"Does that answer your question?" Garrus ducked behind cover.

"Think they spotted us?" Liara piped in.

"Liara; they spotted us when we crashed. Their just...watching." Garrus hissed, his eyes darting.

"Let's just get Shepard and the crew so we can get out of here." Tali refocused the group's attention.

"Right....good idea; this place is giving me the creeps anyways." Garrus mumbled.

"Over here..." Wrex pointed to a cave like structure that probably weaved all throughout the ship.

"Seems easy enough..." Garrus answered slowly checking the entrance of the cave with his rifle.

"Let's hurry. Maybe we can get some of our questions answered if we continue to explore." Liara followed closely behind the Turian.

"Oh god....that smells like shit." Wrex frowned; his complexion drooping even more than it usually did.

"I didn't even notice until you said something..." Garrus added. They continued to go deeper and deeper into the cave. A glowing terminal illuminated the darkness; and Tali was drawn to it.

"Let's have a look see." She snickered, activating her Omni-tool. The others instinctively took positions around Tali to protect her while she worked.

"Nothing too interesting...most of this stuff...I can't even decipher..." She wanted

to slam her fist into the console; but she restrained herself from doing so.

"Anything useful though?" Garrus asked.

"Nothing but a mapping of the ship... Come on, we need to keep moving."

* * *

He brought his hands up to his face when he could seize the chance. He groaned quietly before examining his surroundings. "Where the hell..." He muttered as he blinked rapidly, "...am I?"

He continued to look, finding himself in a small incased structure, with murky, dirt caked glass making everything outside impossible to see. Without hesitation he began to think of an escape plan. Not even after an elapse of five seconds he began to search through his pant pockets in search of his lucky screwdriver; a gift his daughter had given him before he had to go. With success, he pulled the tool from his pocket and pushed the flathead against the dirty surface held before him. Satisfying cracks escaped from contact; only motivating him to slam the tool harder into the glass. Success! It finally broke free! Cautiously, he clambered out of his prison and into his new world. He glanced around and noticed the hundreds upon hundreds of other pods similar to his own. Most of them were empty; save for the few that contained the other crew...He hesitated for a moment, bringing the handle of the screwdriver to his head; thinking of what to do next. 'Attempt' to save the others? Or 'attempt' to save myself? The choice was obvious. Examine your perimeter first before you do any of the latter. He flipped his tool over to a stabbing position; turning it into a deadly weapon. Two collector's rounded the corner.

His heart jumped; a daily patrol he assumed. He put his back up against the closest pillar he could find and prayed they wouldn't see his broken pod. It was wishful thinking. Angry screeching emitted from the direction of the collectors before they began to search the room for their prisoner. He couldn't take them; not with a simple screwdriver. He looked ahead of him and saw a small hole in the ground. Without a second thought he jumped to avoid being seen; vowing he would come back for them.

* * *

I am so sorry; I'm leaving you guys on a short chapter on a cliffhanger...again...but I will present another chapter soon; and I know it's been long since due...but you guys know how life goes...with it's...stuff...and shit...

Notes: Thinking of the Quarian language takes A LOT of time an effort; not to mention imagination...If you want, Message me and I will translate what she is saying...but, I decided to do it this way because I thought it would be neat.

Thank you guys for the support once again; this story wouldn't have come as far without you guys.

Remember, this story will be heading into the second segment of ME2; it just has to be implemented, and I already have Ideas falling on countless pieces of paper. (It's all organized too, by the way, so don't worry.)

Once again, Thank you all very, very much!

-Narcrotic


	14. Section 12

Well...Here it is... I know...I know...I think i'm disappointing you guys with my lack of consistent releases of chapters...But...here it is. Section 12. It isn't long either...soo....

* * *

"Fuck." His elicit response was somewhat silent...but so...uncanny...and suddenly loud...He cursed at himself within his thoughts for such a careless response. He turned back from the dead end and continued to crawl in the confined tunnels. He felt like an earth worm; crawling in the dark, save for the few lights that streaked across the confining area.

An opening! Yes! He crawled, his eagerness becoming ever more present to reach his freedom. After that, he wanted to become a claustrophobic. If he ever got stuck in there...He pushed the though immediately out of his head. Can't think negative. Must continue with a positive attitude. He poked his head through and cautiously looked around, for fear he would be spotted. When he found the all clear he slowly exited the tunnel and onto the floor. He froze as he saw a Collector with his back turned to him busily tapping away at a console. Adjacent to him was one of his own...or what seemed to be one of his own laying on a metal table with needles and random medical tools prodded into it. He shivered at the thought and flipped his screwdriver to a stabbing posture.

He never enjoyed using deadly force...He never enjoyed killing and always tried to find any other available option before picking the latter...But this was an exception. After seeing what they did to his friend...Carrying him off like a trophy tearing at the skin of his appendages...it fueled his rage and had a massive change of heart. He came up slowly behind the collector, jumped on its back and forcefully shoved the metal tool into one of its eyes. It tried to scream but was quickly silenced as he stabbed the alien in the neck, damaging what he guessed where the vocal cords were. The Alien lurched forward in an attempt to throw him off his back but to no avail. The human stabbed another eye and another...until the alien was brought to its knees. He finished off his kill by violently shoving the tool into the middle of its head repeatedly until it fell, the alien's head a crumpling heap of rubbish organic matter, cybernetics, and fluid. He turned to the console and found the collector's weapon sitting quietly on the side of the computer waiting for its user to patiently pick it back up again.

The human instinctively picked the weapon up and held it in his hands. Unfortunately, he didn't know how to use it. Seemed easy enough...pull the trigger...fire...alternative firing modes? Were there? Where do you put the heat sinks?

"Shit." He mumbled under his breath. He realized without more experimenting, the gun was only good for whatever was already loaded in it.

"Better than nothing." He wavered, his face drooping into a much unwanted frown. Before venturing off into deeper into the corridors to look for his crew he looked at the collector laying on the table. With a scoff, he smashed the buttons. The malfunctioned triggered all of the liquids and fluids hanging off from the table entered the body. Shortly afterwards, the collector began convulsing violently before its eyes turned to a sickly powdery black, silencing the alien permanently. After grinning mischievously, he glanced around and took the corridor that looked to be in the same general direction of where his fellow crewmates were.

"Keep going, looks like we're almost at the other end." Wrex whispered, his voice a dark grumble; there footsteps almost shadowing his voice.

"Stop...There's light up ahead." Tali mumbled, waving to the others behind her to stop moving. Tali held Liara's pistol in her hands tightly, crouching into the shadows, approaching the light cautiously. She peeked around the corner and found more consoles to search around.

"Come on, I found more computers..." She hissed to her teammates. The made there way single file, scanning the room with there weapons raised from ceiling to floor, checking every vantage point they could find. Once the perimeter was clear, Garrus nodded to Tali and they both got to work on the glowing consoles.

"They don't know were in." Garrus broke the silence.

"Odd...you'd think their security protocol would be harder to get through."

"Maybe there just playing with us?" Garrus added. Tali smirked.

"Right. Hand us valuable information."

"Hey, I didn't say it was likely, just that it's a possibility." He turned around looking both at Liara and Wrex.

"I mean, it's odd isn't it?" Garrus mused over the facts while busily taping away at his omni-tool.

"What is?" Tali asked; her abilities of multi-tasking becoming apparent.

"We've made it this far without finding a single collector picking a fight with us? Something isn't adding up."

"All the more reason we should get the hell out of here." Wrex added. "Anything of use Garrus? Tali?"

"Nothing ye-" Garrus interrupted himself. "I think I got something."

"What?" Tali asked, turning to face the Turian.

"Look at these Energy signatures." He pointed to the holographic display on his omni-tool. "Look at where their being directed...look at the high sets of concentration all around the ship."

"The energy signatures are picking up the heat being channeled into what I'd say are the drive cores. That's probably the high concentration we're looking at... as for the cooler signatures...Most likely the collector's themselves...switch the dexterity to 98.6." Garrus complied. The energy signatures dropped to a specific location on the ship.

"That's where the crew is." Tali said; her discovery quit settling to herself.

"How do you know this is the crew?" Wrex asked, mildly confused. Garrus responded.

"Tali...did you take any specific readings on the collectors? Namely there body heat?"

"Yes. At the console we last checked." Tali said. Garrus nodded and turned to answer Wrex.

"They're body heat is obviously different than that of Humans, which have the average temperature of 98.6. Switch the sensitivity to a specific region of waves and there you go. Nice call Tali. Would have taken me a while to see that."

"How'd you know it was 98.6?" Wrex asked.

"I didn't. That's what Tali asked for...so I just assumed..." Garrus turned to Tali.

"Uh....Tali, how _did_ you know that?"

_ She couldn't tell them she looked that up! __**Especially**__ for why she looked that up! This is so embarrassing! _

"The classes I took for my 6 month basic survival outside of the Flotilla...it just kind of stuck..." She blinked a couple of times and turned off her omni-tool and turned to face the two awkwardly.

"Which way should we go?" Tali asked, hoping to get Wrex and Garrus focused on something else.

"Why the hell did you learn that?" Wrex quirked; his plated brow moving upwards to her unusual excuse.

"Ask my instructor." She mumbled before moving to the Liara. Garrus turned to see Wrex staring back at him. They seemed to catch on as to what the real reason was to why she knew a human's average temperature. The both shrugged and moved on following Tali.

"I'm designating their location with a NAV point Tali. You getting it on you Heads up display?" Garrus tapped at his omni-tool, slowly walking behind Wrex.

"Yes. What about you?" Tali asked.

"Yeah...Syncing it up now...There we go." Garrus' shoulders drooped into a depressing fashion. "They're on the other side of the ship." He scoffed and grabbed for his rifle.

"Don't remind me." Tali shook her head. They continued down into the corridor the silence unbearable. Tali wished someone would start talking.

"This is getting ridiculous." Wrex boasted, his arms shifting the weapon uncomfortably in his hands. "Not a single fight in hours..."

"All the better, Wrex; I hope it stays like this." Garrus chimed in, turning around to face the Krogan whilst stepping backwards to keep up the pace with the group.

"Logical and precise. Exactly what I expect from you Garrus. You should get a desk job."

"No thanks. I passed on that more than enough times to count." The Turian rolled on both his heels and continued to saunter forward. "What about you Wrex? Ever consider a desk job?"

"What the hell kind of question is that?" Wrex spat at the idea.

"Don't know...seemed like a good one." Garrus grinned, his thick skin straining to meet his facial expression. Tali shook her head. This is what she needed. Fun way to pass the time...despite the situation they were in. The conversation was abruptly interrupted when Liara held her hand up to assess their new situation.

"Be careful...something's not right here." Liara whispered behind her.

"They carefully crept out into the light and looked around. A dead collector lying near a broken console connected to another collector lying on a metal grate. The sight wasn't pretty. Tali's heart skipped a beat. "Did they escape? Did Shepard escape?"

"Huh. Sure we didn't go around in a circle and forget we ran into these fools? Or is someone else running around here?"

"Probably the latter." Garrus answered, kneeling down to the dead collector lying on the floor.

"This bastard got stabbed by a metal prod...a lot. huh...Crude...hardly effective." He got up and looked to the dead body on the table.

"Looks like these tubes fed him one too many chemicals...his eyes are black...and swollen." Garrus shivered. "Gruesome." He added finally.

"I'd rather keep moving." Tali turned her head away from the nasty sight.

"Yeah, you're right, let's keep moving. Nothing we can get from here anyways."

"We're close...I'd say about another thirty minutes worth of this damned maze and were out of here." Garrus closed his omni-tool after looking at the mapping of the collector ship and ventured into the tunnel closest to him. "Nav point says to go this way...see it Tali?"

"Yes. Yes I do." She stuttered the reason unknown. She waited as the other two continued down into the cave. Garrus waved them on to go on without them.

"I know where your thoughts are Tali. I can't promise you anything...but I'm here; and I'll do anything to get the crew back...namely Shepard." His voice lowered to a whisper. He smiled, his mandibles turning awkwardly. With that, he tapped her affectionately on the shoulder and jogged to catch up to the others.

"Thank you Garrus..." She mumbled with a faint smile placed on her lips. "Thank you..."

* * *

This is getting hard... admittedly....things haven't been going my way for awhile, and their catching up to me...Slowing me down...I need to let go some of the weight...What a horrible metaphor.

Thanks for the support guys, I appreciate it so much. Don't worry. This story will never get abandoned. Neither will my other one...I just got to continue it...


	15. Section 13

Sometimes...people serve as a warning to others...The thought trailed through his mind as he slowly crept forward into the maze of dark corners...he heard sounds behind him and on impulse, he quickened his pace to avoid the whatever was behind him. He guessed he was only around 50 feet away from whatever entered the room; some few minutes after he had killed the two collectors...oh well...no time to think of that now, time to get back to the crew and save them.

He continued through the uneasy terrain, occasionally stumbling from the miscellaneous items strewn across the gritty floor. He desperately needed a flashlight...but couldn't afford the chance of being spotted by one of the collectors. Even in that case, a flashlight couldn't do much use in the dark environment that encased him. He almost felt like the ship was purposely built to be chaotic and confusing for this particular situation he had found himself in. If that was the reason, it was extremely effective. Suddenly hope had lost grip on him and he stopped walking and stared blankly at the darkness that surrounded him. He wanted to cry...sit in the closest corner he could find and cry...He knew his chances of seeing his family again were so slim, he'd have a better chance of winning 14 billion credits, becoming a council member, and doing gymnastics with a Salarian all in one sitting than living through this...He chuckled quietly at the thought of doing gymnastics with a Salarian...

"Best to live in the moment I guess..." his voice was bitten with fear and slow choked sobs. The thought of his family began to flow through his memories...His beautiful wife...his beautiful daughter...They needed him...but most importantly, he needed them now more than ever. That is what fueled him to go on this far, and that is what will fuel him to continue on. He began walking again, faster and stronger; with a sense of meaning, more than last time. I have to live...I need to live, I MUST live...for them...

He gripped his weapon tighter and grinned devilishly. He would sacrifice everything to see them again.

* * *

Jesus, I'm finally working on my stories again...after a lot of procrastination, lack of ideas, and losing my soundboard (My idea list thingamajig that I use to put down useful ideas that can be implemented or put into my story), which was a major setback, I finally decided to restart and continue my work without my great ideas...


	16. Section 14: Apology

I apologize.

Mark my words. I will start this story back up again. I promise that to all of you who have read this story of which has brought me a lot of sweat and tears to make. And I know I couldn't have gotten this far without all your guys' support.

I won't mention any names in the avoidance of favoritism, but you know who you are! The ones who messaged me, commented on my work, critiqued it, positively or negatively, Thank you!

If you guys want, You can send me ideas in to get this story going in! Start forecasting what will happen! Who knows! Maybe you'll have guessed it right!


	17. Section 15

_You better believe it. I'm back. :D_

_First off, I'd like to give a very much needed appreciation to Candles in the Night for his help in getting my ass set back in place...Thanks man. His work is in this chapter. Thank you so much._

_I'm going to be a little rusty for now. I haven't done this in a while and I'll get better within a chapter or so. :)_

_Please leave a comment! It really helps with the motivation. But it isn't necessary of course._

_And here we go..._

* * *

They watched. They listened. The pods clung to the ceilings. They were empty. Devoid—Dead, but looking at him, waiting for their murky spaces to be filled. They gave him a headache. The pressure built behind his sockets and the pain  
started to grate underneath his skin. Despite his headache he realized how muddy and cold it was. He occasionally, as he was walking through the dark dirty corridors, came across pockets of hot air, and lingered in them for short while before  
continuing in the confined spaces. It was almost as if he was succumbing to a force beyond his control…was it his imagination? His fear? Paranoia? It was hard to tell…but he felt it was a combination of all three. It was a deadly  
concoction he surmised. He shivered but he couldn't stop to dawdle at those thoughts.

The sweat on his neck turned freezing cold. The hair on his back stood up. He heard low, but audible whispers. Were they in his head? No…No…they were coming closer. And a glow was starting to approach him leaving four  
silhouettes to be dimly seen in the light. They couldn't be collectors. One of them looked too big. The others too slim. But one of them seemed just right. He took cover and aimed his rugged and dirty rifle at the biggest one. His  
heart was beating and his breath was the only thing he could here. His fight or flight response kicked in and in a matter of seconds would determine his fate.

"Identify yourself!" They heard someone say in front of them. The biggest creature stopped in its tracks before lowering the gun it held.

"Don't be stupid." Wrex replied, "Marcus. It's us."

"Wr…Wr…Wrex? Urdnot? Wrex?" He stuttered

"Yes…mind putting down that rifle of yours?" Marcus let out a breath he held in and dropped the sights down from his face.

"Yeah…sorry…"

Tali spoke up. "How did you get out? Do you know where the others are? Where did they put you?"

He stammered before he spoke. "I…I got a general Idea… but nothing really all that great…"

"Well that's better than what we've been going on…we know where it is…but we have no idea where to go." Garrus said loudly for everyone to hear him.

"It was back this way, I remember that much" Marcus said pointing a thumb behind him. "We go down this way and then I crawled through a hole that lead to where everyone was."

"How big is this hole?" Wrex asked. "My bulky size might...hinder me from fitting through."

"That is totally what he said." Tali added. Everyone turned to her. The human even smirked. "Sorry, just impulse…" She mentally smacked herself. God! That was just too embarrassing! Keep your mouth shut Tali! Joker's humor is  
rubbing off on you!

"Not that big. Wrex, I really doubt you'll be able to fit through…you might need to stay behind or take someone else to find another way there."

"We're wasting time talking, we really should move." Liara said, her armor clacking against her shouldered weapon. They began following the human, backtracking his steps until it led back to the hole that he had crawled out of.

"You fit through that? I'd have to take off everything to try and get through there." Garrus said disappointedly.

"In all honesty, I'd rather not see a naked Turian." Liara said.

"We don't look all that bad." Garrus chuckled, his mandibles gaping at an odd angle.

"It looks like the girls are going to have to go with him. We'll find another way around."

"Guys. Be safe." Garrus added looking to both of them.

"Keelah se'lai." Tali ended and watched as the human crawled back into the hole.

Wrex and Garrus started walking off around the corner into the damp darkness.

"I'll go second." Liara reluctantly crawled into the tunnel with Tali following closely behind.  
Garrus stared at them until they disappeared from sight.

"Wrex, got any ideas on how to get there?"

"I'm good Garrus, but not that good." Wrex said folding his weapon to a rest position. "How about we just stir up some commotion and let them come to us?"

Garrus turned to face the Krogan. "You can't be serious. There could be thousands of them here and you want to start an unbeatable battle? I've been playing the living game—and so far,

I've been winning. Drawing attention to ourselves is definitely going to make me lose." Garrus gawked at Wrex. He opened up his Omni-tool. "Look, we made a plan; I really think we should stick to it. We can follow  
these corridors until we hit that heat source we found. Look, we covered some good ground so far…"

"Damnit…I hate all this wishy washy crap. Let's hurry." Wrex walked past the Turian, his determination growing stronger, but his patience limited. Garrus silently stepped up to Wrex and continued their steady walk down the  
corridors, their attempts to release their comrades gradually coming into fruition.

Tali was used to this. Despite the murky and wet tunnel she crawled through, it was relatively comfortable. She especially liked the fact that she was wearing a suit when she noticed the others, silently cursing to themselves  
when drips of liquids or mud had fell on their head or dripped down their faces.

"We're almost there I think" Marcus said, his gun making his movements clumsy.

"Please hurry, this mud is horrendous…" Liara replied, her hands caked in mud.

Two minutes and the gloss from Tali's visor was gone. The humidity and dirt had created a thin, almost translucent layer of mud on her visor from the heavy floating vapors of the atmosphere. The grime started getting in the cracks of her rough cloth wrapped around her suit, earning the respect of a rude grunt from Tali when she saw the stains on her clothing.

"You hurt?" Liara asked, her breath shallow

"No." Tali responded flatly.

"What's wrong then?"

"Nothing."

"Guys, cut the chatter. We're being loud enough crawling through these ducts—talking isn't helping." Marcus snapped without stopping to look at them.

"Does it matter? They already know we are on board. They're just waiting for the right time to strike." Tali said quietly. The other two stopped, almost making Tali bump into Liara's rear end.

"What is it?" Tali hissed, her patience being tested for stopping.

"The tunnels branch off…I don't know which way I ** came from!" He stammered angrily.

Tali responded quickly. "Look on the ground for signs of wear on the ground."

"Okay, from what I see, It's gotta be the one on the left. Come on. It shouldn't be much farther."

"It better not…My legs are starting to cramp up" Liara whispered "and on top of that…remember that thing about sand getting in places Tali?"

"Don't remind me." Tali answered stoically. All Marcus could do was look back and give a scornful expression. "We're almost there. I remember now." Marcus whispered quietly behind him. And soon enough, he had made it back to the way he came from, Marcus' head peeking out of the hole to analyze the situation.

He quietly lifted himself out of the hole, his weapon scanning the large murky room before turning his attention to his comrade behind him. He looked to the Asari's face and pointed to the direction of two collectors he had seen while scanning the room. He then directed her to take care of them silently. She nodded with a stoic look on her face while she holstered her weapon and made her way closer to the two guards. Her light footsteps were unheard as she removed her knife from her sheath. With a steady biotic attack, the collectors rose gently in to the air, helpless from the attack from behind them. They wouldn't even get to see their attacker before they would be killed.

Liara thrust the knife into the area she guessed would be the kidneys and then into the throat. She repeated the attack to the other collector adjacent to her last target. By the time she was done, Tali and Marcus had already made there way scanning the pods looking for their incapacitated commander.

"Come on Shepard…I know you're here…I can feel it…" she whispered under her breath as she clumsily scrapped away at the dirty glass of the pods. "Marcus…do you have any idea where he could be?"

"Not a clue…just keep looking." He hissed. "Liara, keep this place clear okay?" Marcus said as he continued scanning the pods.

Tali looked and saw one of the pods broken. "Marcus, was this your pod?" Marcus looked back to where she was and responded. "Yeah…hard to believe I was in that…rather not think about it Tali. Look, I'm just going to start opening these fucking things up." And with that, Marcus raised his weapon in the air and smashed heavily onto the glass. A satisfying series of cracks were heard eventually shattering small fragments off the cage. As soon as Marcus could reach his hand inside the glass he did. He put his hand carefully through and pressed his two fingers on the crew mate's neck inside. A steady pulse. From the looks of it, the crewman was a woman. He put down his weapon and took out his screwdriver. With leverage, he placed the screw and pushed upwards; cracking the grass along a steady line. Then he pulled and the glass finally gave way, almost making him fall back. He lifted the unconscious crew member from the nasty shell. He held heri n his arms and shook her gently.

"Hey….hey, wake up…" Marcus said gently. A pounding was heard and he looked up to see a conscious person inside. Tali was already on it. Tali took a more discreet approach, checking for seals or a lock. She followed the contours until she reached a form of lock. With the butt of her gun, she hit it repeatedly until it gave way. Three broken locks later, it broke with the human inside eagerly pushing against the glass and falling to his hands and knees.

It was Shepard.

"Shepard…" Tali said in disbelief. "Shepard…it's you…I can't…we found you…You have…we need to get the rest of the crew out of here…" she turned around to Marcus who was still trying to bring the woman back to consciousness. "Marcus, we need to get the others out. There are locks along these pods. Break them and they'll release the crew."

Marcus nodded immediately and made his way to one of the pods closest to him and began pounding on the locks.

"Guys, We're running out of time…They're coming…I can feel it…" Liara said, her stance prepping for battle.

"Where am I? What are you guys doing here?" Shepard grumbled as he tried to make out his surroundings. Tali answered him quickly.

"Saving you Shepard. We need to get out of here. _Right now._ But we need to get the rest of the crew out of here. Break the locks on the side of the pods." Shepard seemed to follow what she was saying as he got up.

"Got it…" He looked around, his senses coming back to him. There he was…that's the Shepard I know Tali thought to herself. He's analyzing, finding the best option and sticking to it.

Everybody's attention was taken when gunfire was heard below them. The subdued sounds of battle frightened them; Marcus, Tali, and Liara all knew that Garrus and Wrex were in trouble.

"We need to hurry I'm assuming…" Shepard said as he jogged to one of the caskets. He grabbed one of the rocks haphazardly laying on the ground and began pounding on the locks with gathering strength. Tali found that the woman lying on the ground had woken and was on her hands and knees; her senses finally coming to fruition. Marcus came up to her and told her she needed to get up and start helping release the others. She kept jogging to the other pods and began on another pod. By now, Shepard had already broken two pods quickly checking their vitals and clumsily putting the unconscious people on the floor.

Liara had braced at just the right time as three collectors ran into the room, their weapons trained on her. She had already placed a barrier in front of her and raised her weapon with a biotic attack at the ready. She fired her weapon whilst mimicking a punch at the collectors before her. Before three rounds could be fired from her enemy, they had been violently tossed against the wall behind them. She fired in three round bursts killing the collectors before her. She taken into account this was five she had killed in less than 8 minutes. Good time she noted.

Tali was barely paying attention to the enemies coming through the confining entrance. She was focused on prying the caskets open, freeing her friends…her family from hell. Time seemed to slow. Other crew members who had been in pods were now joining Tali, Shepard, and Marcus in freeing the others. Some of them had picked up collectors weapons and took point in protecting the others.

* * *

"Give me some god damned covering fire Wrex!" Garrus yelled his hands smoothly reloading his weapon while he was behind cover.

"You don't need cover, Garrus, you're doing just fine." Wrex said as he smashed a collector to a wall while shooting his heavy mass rifle ripping through the torso of another.

"I think we really got their attention now Wrex! How the hell are we going to get off this station now? We're trapped!"

"We blow a hole through the damned station Garrus. Do I have to help you spell too?"

* * *

"We can't go back the way we came. For all we know, their position has been compromised and we could be crawling to our deaths. We need to find an alternative route." Tali surmised to Marcus.

"We need to find the hanger bays. They've got to be placed on this station all over this place." Shepard said behind them. He was bashing into the last of the caskets. By now, over three fourths of the crew were away. The other fourth were already dead or unconscious still.

"We're right behind you Shepard." The crew had said. "Through hell and back." One of the other crew members said. "well, we're in hell right now…we're looking for the 'coming back' part." Another said. Some laughed.

They all looked at Shepard expectantly; waiting for something. He noticed and was not foreign to this kind of situation before. He looked to their faces. Some young and old. tired and scared. They _all_ looked to him…especially Tali. He eventually turned to his best weapon of speech.

"We aren't fit for combat. But we sure as hell made it this far. I don't know about you, but I expect 110% from all of you. You wanna go home? Your actions will determine whether we get off this hell hole or not. We may not have the guns or armor to do this. But I sure as hell know that we have something they don't: Spirit and Hope. Let's go home Soldiers. OOH-RA!" The echo's of OOH-RA" Followed afterwards. With a renewed sense of courage and pride, the group, armed with collector rifles to sticks and rocks ventured out of their hell holes behind their commander.

* * *

"You hear that Wrex?" Garrus yelled as he fired a three round burst from his rifle.

"It's really hard to hear anything under all this gunfire…just how I like it."

"I heard a human phrase just above us. They are right above us! We need to find a way to get to them!"

"Call them through the radio!"

"Can't! Too much interference! To your right Wrex! Your right!"

With a roar, Wrex hefted his large weapon in the air and swung it like a bat crushing the collector's wedge shaped skull into pieces.

"I'll never be too old to kill you sons o' bitches!" Wrex boomed.

* * *

"Tali, where is Garrus and Wrex?" The way we went through…they couldn't go with us. They stayed behind to guard our entrance…but its more than likely that their position was compromised since their was gunfire."

"Can't we contact them?"

"There is too much interference. There are active jammers in the ship that are disrupting communication." Tali shrugged as they kept moving their weapons scanning the hallways in front of them. So far, they had killed over half a dozen Collectors unfortunate enough to cross paths with the escapees.

"Damnit. We need to find them. Nobody can get left behind." Shepard said angrily.

"We already left the dead behind, the others are carrying the unconscious. How do you suggest we find them Shepard?" Liara asked.

"Tali, send strong electrical spikes through your omni-tool, if we're lucky enough, Garrus or Wrex can pinpoint our location."

"Fortunately, they can scan the our heat signatures through the station…its kind of how we found you…and if I were to send high energy spikes through my omni-tool, it'll be dead in less than fifteen minutes.

"I'm hoping that how much time it will get us off this ship. If not, we move to Liara's." Shepard said grimly.

"You got it John." Tali said with a bitter smile. At least I have him back she said to herself.

"Oh, and Tali…It's nice to be back." Shepard turned to her quickly and smiled a toothy grin.


	18. Section 16

Platform 432: Anomalies detected. Tactile reference has been disengaged. Platforms 143, 158, and platforms 160 through 190 have been affected.

Platform 231: Assessing data mixture. Information has been scrambled, attempting to dissect useless data.

Platform 678: Olfactory reference halted. Processing useless data bit mixture now. Eliminating unnecessary information.

Platform 180: Restoring platforms 143, 158, and platforms 169 through 190.

Platform 143: Restoring link to Fragment core

Platform 158: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 160: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 161: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 163: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 164: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 165: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 166: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 167: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 168: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 169: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 170: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 171: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 172: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 173: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 174: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 175: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 176: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 177: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 178: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 179: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 180: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 181: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 182: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 183: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 184: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 185: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 186: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 187: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 188: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 189: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 190: Reestablishing Core memory fragments…

Platform 431: Attempting to reestablish tactile reference…

Platform 432: Access Denied. Platform 431 does not have necessary Jurisdiction.

Platform 431: Attempting to reestablish tactile reference…

Platform 432: Access Denied. Platform 431 does not have necessary Jurisdiction.

Platform 431: Attempting to reestablish tactile reference…

Platform 432: Access Denied. Platform 431 does not have necessary Jurisdiction.

Platform 431: Attempting to reestablish tactile reference…

Platform 432: Access Denied. Platform 431 does not have necessary Jurisdiction.

Platform 1: Anomaly detected. Slug casing approximately 45 mm in width and length has entered Lower Diaphragm.

Intestinal organs ruptured. Exoskeleton Ruptured. Bleeding fluids at approximately 2 pints per minute. Internal bleeding is flowing approximately 1 pint every 2 minutes.

Platform 2: Core temperature lowering.

Platform 3: Blood pressure lowering. Heart rate escalating.

Platform 30: Injecting Y-MAZ67. Injecting Y-MAZ69. ZX40CODONE production increased. Processing has been successfully stimulated.

Platform 1: Multiple anomalies detected. Slug casings approximately 45 mm in width and length has entered in both lower left and right extremities.

Cajunmuka Artery has been ruptured. Bleeding fluids at approximately 1 gallon every 2 minutes.

NETWORK SEVERED

RECEIVING extraterrestrial link….

Attempting to establish hard connection….

Link established.

…/Rearranging code:

Data processing escalated. Network platform terminated: Avatar Established….

Master: Harbinger.

Slave: Collector.

His surprised expression was quickly replaced with anger and frustration. The heat emitting from his heavy machine gun had somewhat twisted the image before him.

The collector was briefly lifted into the air; its flesh boiling off before the Krogan's eyes; eventually revealing a sickly mess of cybernetics glowing from underneath the remains of a charred body.

Wrex was, for only a moment, shocked with what he saw.

"Concussion shot ready Wrex." Garrus Hissed over the comm.

"Save it, this one is mine." Wrex sheathed in anger. "You and me pal."

"You fight the indestructible." Harbinger warned before charging him. The speed of which he lifted off was stifling.

Wrex hardly had time to fire his rifle before a fist or leg of some sort came into contact with his skull.

Shaking off the minor distortion he felt in his head, he looked quickly around to find the looming threat.

"Garrus, You got anything?"

"No visual. Wrex, we need to move. _Now_." Garrus replied.

"Where the hell are we going to find the others?" Wrex asked before Garrus raised his arm to reveal his omni-tool.

"I see them. They've got a trail leading to one of the entrances off the ship. Someone is sending energy spikes to alert their position. That's got to be them."

"Let's move. The more time we waste he-"the blast had lifted the Krogan and Turian off their feet smashing them to a nearby concave.

Garrus screamed in agony when his 'elbow' socket ripped free from his skeleton.

The armor he was wearing was the only thing keep him arm from dangling limply. But it still hung from an awkward angle.

"Fuck! This shit _always _happens to me!" he shouted.

"Garrus, your rifle—"

"Fuck the rifle!"

"You run from the inevitable." Harbinger said in his cold demeanor.

They both looked at the burning corpse that Harbinger controlled. It was sickening.

Sacrificing seconds, they turned and ran; running away from the advancing army of collectors resuming their unrelenting siege on the two warriors.

They sprinted as fast as their legs could muster through the cold and dark interiors of the ship, their jagged movements occasionally making them trip and stumble over themselves.

With disparity Garrus yelled to Wrex:

"Activate your tool to send an energy spike to notify them were here! If that spike is a trap, then we're already dead!"

Wrex answered by activating his tool and clumsily trying to press the buttons while running.

* * *

Another scream. That was another death in Shepard's hands.

"Keep to cover! Don't give them a chance to hit you!" Shepard screamed. The continued to advance through the corridor towards what they guessed were the docks.

Moans of agony were heard.

Mechanical whines and tightened muscles followed by the sounds of shortened circuitry reassembling meat and bone.

_Husks_.

They slid from darkness; lifting themselves from the contours of the grime and dirt; beginning their undeserving walk towards their enemy.

"Husks! Right ahead of us! Liara, Tali, take care of them! _Now!"_ Shepard screamed.

Liara shot volleys of biotic energy towards the synthetic creatures. Following the energy dissipated from Liara, a volley of

pistol fire rang from Tali's weapon; the rounds ripping apart the manifolds and hoses that clung to the body of the husks.

"Keep moving!" Tali's hoarse voice was heard and the crew continued their fight towards the hanger. Tali checked her omni-tool quickly

hoping her friends had seen their warning. Her pale eyes widened in shock.

"Shepard! Wrex and Garrus see us! They've responded with energy spikes of their own! They're closing in on our position!"

"Then they are bringing a lot of company with them. We need to get this place cleared and ready to go in five minutes. Tali. I need you to see if you can steal one of their transports."

"It'll be like slicing Syalak." Tali responded menacingly.

Shepard could only muster a smile before his apprehension once-again wrapped around his battle-weary mind.

"Let's move! Let's move! I wanted us out of here five minutes ago!" Shepard stopped and pushed the shoulders of crew passing by.

"Let's go! Let's go!" He yelled impatiently, hoping that his harsh impatient words would boost proficiency.

* * *

"We're cutting it close Wrex! Keep 'em down!"

They temporarily bunkered down returned their fire only to catch their breath for the next dash.

Their cold proficiency had already killed several collectors in their path. Even with the mangled arm Garrus was inconvenienced with, his hand still stood steady with

his side arm, calmly picking out targets as his HUD fed

him quick firing solutions. Wrex was a little less selective about his targets and fired as he saw.

With perfection, the two threw concussive grenades to give them a break in their firing line to continue their run.

* * *

By now, most of the crew had ditched their primitive sticks and stone weapons and grabbed the guns off the fallen collectors.

Although the weapons were bulky, they proved quite useful in countering the collectors offensive.

"Son of a bitch." Tali hissed. "I need a Preface for the ZINCtech coupling interface here! Let's move!" A human nodded her head and stormed off to find someone with the correct omni-tool only to have a round enter her leg.

"I'm hit! Holy shit, I'm hit!" She falls to the ground scraping her arms from the clumsy fall. Before the marine could even recover from the fall, a three-fingered hand yanked her back into the hole she emerged from.

"Stay here. Hold this spot. Protect it with your fucking life."

The woman nodded in compliance with an unsteady shake in her hands and right leg.

Tali jumped from the ditch and began a low crawl to the next piece of cover where Liara was.

"Liara! I need your omni-tool!"

Liara turned, her face smudged in dirt, cuts, scraps, and human blood.

"here…" she began fumbling for the unlocking mechanism. "Here…here, take it."

Liara's hands were shaking.

"Liara, are you okay?"

"Yes. I…I'm just fine.."

Tali looked down. Liara's shields failed and a large piece of shrapnel had entered the side of her abdomen.

Her blood was slowly trickling down her armor soaking a small patch of dirt.

"You can't even feel it can you?"

"No…hardly…please….hurry…"

"I will." Tali couldn't even finish the sentence before Liara fell into unconsciousness; her hand slipping from Tali's.

"_Fuck!" _ She pounded the ground and made her way back.

She rolled back into the ditch to work on hacking the gunship. She found the woman still in the same spot, shaking more dangerously now.

"My femoral artery….its' severed….I'm bleeding like a bitch…" She muttered, her words slurred.

"Put some pressure on it. Okay? You need to keep up with me you got that?"

"I'm cold…." She whispered.

"I need a _fucking_ medic!" Tali screamed out from the ditch. Shortly afterwards, Marcus slid into cover and looked around, his head slightly bleeding.

"Put some pressure on her wound, I need to get to work on this damned thing!"

She turned her attention to the locking manifold to expose the circuitry she needed to get access to in order to begin her hack. Physical hacking on top of cyber hacking was usually what she needed to do in order to steal a vehicle.

"Come on, give me some details here." Tali whispered, her calm state of mind returning as she worked.

* * *

ACCESSING INFORMATION

SCRAPPING PRESCRIPTED MATERIAL

REWRITING COMMAND PROMPTS

…/Accessing Data mixtures…Binary code scrapped….rewriting command code….

Begin assessment TALI'ZORAH::: UPLOAD:CPUSERNME:GARRUSV.

GARRUSV:UPLOAD:INITIALIZINGUPLOAD:COMPLETE.

Begin assessment TALI'ZORAH:::UPLOAD:CPTEMPLATE:CLLCTRGNSHP:HACK

SEARCHING DATA BANKS…

PROGRAM FOUND: EXCTE? Y/N?

Begin assessment TALI'ZORAH::: Y

FUNCTION:TEMPLATE:ACCEPTED:CLLCTRGNSHP:TEMPLATE

* * *

She turned to face her attention away from the omni-tool screen and began her physical rewiring of the gunship.

By now, Marcus had applied what was left of the pieces of his shirt into a makeshift tourniquet to stem the excessive flow of blood.

Looking past the dirt smeared across the woman's face, Tali saw the face of a young and scared girl clutching for dear life.

* * *

LOCAL:NETWORK:TERMINATED…

UPLOADING:COMMAND:JUNCTIONS

* * *

It was unfair. Cruel. Harsh. Her eyes were darting back and forth now, her teeth chattering.

* * *

UPLOAD:COMPLETE.

ATTEMPTING:REROUTE.

EXCTE REWRITE? Y/N?

TALI'ZORAH::: Y

FUNCTION:REROUTING NOW…

* * *

The marine closed her eyes and took in her last breath. Death had finally welcomed her.

* * *

REROUTE COMPLETE.

TALI'ZORAH. YOU HAVE SUCCEEDED.

* * *

"No. I haven't…" She whispered coldly. She looked up and turned around.

"We're ready! Get moving! Move!" She yelled behind her. Marcus glanced back before jumping overhead to yell for his companions.

"Let's go! Get the fuck outta here! Let's go!" He bellowed. The crew responded instantly by jumping up to their feet and making their steady retreat to the gunship.

Tali climbed aboard and quickly sat into the cock-pit prepping for lift off. Venom now clung to her anger and activated the weapons on the gunship.

"Remember this?" she hissed to herself before pressing the trigger. The dual cannon ion weapon beams began charging before spilling out the discharge with sickening power.

Explosions rang around the collectors disintegrating them with a fury that no other weapon in the room could match.

Shepard had seen the destruction ensuing around him and took his chance to run back to the ship.

"Come on! Last chance to get the fuck on! Check for wounded!" He started running before he saw the small blue figure slumped on the ground.

"Liara! No!" He tripped over himself before reaching her. "Shit…" He examined her quickly before find her wound. Lifting her up quickly, he hefted her over

his shoulder, being careful not to damage the sensitive injury. In a steady jog, he began running to the gunship.

"Cover Shepard!" Tali yelled to the passengers in the vehicle. The soldiers already inside aimed and fired their last trio's of rounds to help the commander.

"This way! This way Wrex, Fuck!" They slid; their armored boots slipping against the dry soot; their bulky forms making it hard for them to change direction.

"I see them! Come on!" Wrex yelled, his muscular form pushing for speed rather than raw strength.

"That's them! Garrus and Wrex! Cover their ass! They've got hostiles behind them!" Marcus yelled pointing to their location.

Tali pulled the trigger, carefully aiming behind Garrus and Wrex. Placing the death trap for the collectors, she waited patiently for them to come running out of

the entrance of the corridor to be sliced and disintegrated into pieces.

The timing couldn't have been better. The first trio of collectors came out of the gritty hallway only to be met with the sickly yellow particle beam designed to boil metal.

Tali realized that repurposing the weapon to eliminate infantry was just as effective.

"Come on you bastards! Run faster!" A crew member yelled, his impatience justified due to a broken leg he suffered from the fighting.

"Give them some goddamned covering fire! We're not leaving until they get here!" Shepard yelled his voice hoarse from the physical strain of fighting.

The rest of the crew responded by firing the very last of there ammunition at any direction they seemed fit to shoot.

"We're almost there Garrus! We're almost there!" Wrex screamed, his breath heavy from sprinting.

"The hell we are! I feel like I've been running an eternity!"

"Tali, turn the ship around, we need to start moving! Get your asses on board we're outta here marines!"

With uncontained excitement, they boarded the gunship. Tali clumsily flipped the vehicle in the opposite direction facing the opening of the ship. The sky never looked so beautiful...

"They're turning the ship around! We need to run faster!"

"Help! Fucking help me!" A voice screamed out, a wounded human lay on the floor, his foot and leg broken. The Krogan lifted the human up by the shirt and hoisted him over his hump.

The human screamed in excruciating pain from the shift and grinding of his broken bones.

"You'll thank me later…" Wrex scoffed.

The gunship slowly started hovering towards the opening of the ship, waiting for Garrus and Wrex to jump into the ship to make their final escape.

Some crew members waived at the two aliens running, hoping that their shouting and howling would make them hurry.

Garrus had finally jumped into the aircraft and turned around to find Wrex still running with the badly injured man still bouncing on his hump.

"I'm throwing him!" Wrex yelled and grabbed the man

"Nononononono! No! No!" His screaming did little to help his dangling form as he glided in the air before making contact with the gunship floor. He groaned as he clutched to his limp leg.

Wrex then jumped into the gunship and closed the hatch behind him leaving the entire crew sitting in the immense aircraft.

"Get us out of here Tali!" Shepard yelled while tending to Liara.

"The worst vacation ever." Joker whispered, his brow beaded with sweat as he sat in the corner of the floor.

"You're telling me Jeff." Garrus said before he grunted from snapping his arm back in place by using the handles on the ship for leverage.

"Get me a head count!"

"6 unconscious, including Chawkwas."

"9 KIA at start sir, another 8 were killed on top of 4 MIA."

"There's only fifteen of us sir. Not including your Combat team."

"How the _FUCK_" Shepard slammed his fist into the wall next to him sending a wave of piercing hot pain through his arm. "did this happen?"

"We're as clueless as you are sir. Orders? What are we doing now sir?"

"Nothing. We have gun-ships on our ass! Man your fucking stations, we aren't out of the fire yet!" Garrus yelled from the co-pilot's seat.

"Grab the brace handles everyone! Two volunteers to man the guns on the sides of the ship! Let's move! Go!" Shepard barked, his orders sending instantaneous action from his surviving crew.

"Garrus, pull the forward thrusters at ninety-percent. We're stopping this piece of shit on a dime." Tali hissed. Garrus responded quickly and boosted the power to the engines.

"Brace!" Tali yelled before yanking on the stick forcing the gunship to slow to a near stop. The chasing gunships failed to slow down fast enough, turning the tides around.

"Fire! Fire! Fire!" Tali screamed, her triggers already being pulled.

the main cannons fired, the first one missing all entirely while the second one only clipped another aircrafts engines. The ship's side burst into flames but continued it's flight pattern.

"Garrus what are the other armaments?"

"Nothing! That's all this thing has!"

The enemy ships had finally slowed and were turning around to fire their salvos of particle beams.

"Tali! Move up Damnit! Hit them close!" Garrus yelled equalizing the power between thrusters.

"I'm moving up and coming down low, brace! We're going in hard!"

"Tali! Make sure you give us a clear shot!" Wrex barked, his rifle training on one of the gunships.

"Get ready! Bringing us in on five!" Tali yelled before pushing on the stick jerking the ship forward.

"Evade! Their prepping to fire! Brace yourselves!" Garrus screamed.

Their aiming was much more accurate than Tali's. Their ion cannons clipped the sides of their ship melting and boiling away the pale brown armor cascading around the ship.

Another hit like that and they'll explode in mid-air.

Tali yelled gruffly "I'm crossing them now! Fire!" The side mounted gun whined before shooting it yellow beam into the enemy ship adjacent to them.

The crew could make out the collectors in the ship before being disintegrated in a burning scrap of metal; slowly falling from the sky before exploding into a haze of exciting lights.

Some of the crew shouted expletives while watching the ship bellow smoke afterwards.

"Two more! We got this!" Marcus' voice hardly could be heard over the engines.

Explosions from above...Fighters in the sky…The Alliance had come.

The remaining gun ships exploded into balls of plume and smoke, their warped masses falling into a thousand pieces causing a finale of impacts charring the earth; scarring the land below. Cheers were shouted, hugs were exchanged.

_**The Alliance had com**__**e. **_


	19. Section 17: PA

Don't worry guys, I will be releasing the next chapter soon. I'm working on it as we speak! :D

Okay, so, this story WILL be bridging into ME2 okay? It isn't exactly going to capture EVERYTHING considering that the story is so vast.

I'm deciding whether or not I should continue off this title or create an entirely separate title to sequel the MED:TVOL.

Also, the reason why this one came so late was because I went to DC for vacation. The heat there was UNBEARABLE. Well, the humidity anyways was. Ridiculous. I prefer my hometown AZ baby! Dry heat! :D

Okay, well, enough of that. Those are my announcements for today Ladies and Gentlemen. I hope ladies read this. :P I'm trying to make this story appeal to everyone, or at least try.

I have lots planned for it, and I would totally tell you, but I don't want to give away any info! :D


	20. Section 18

"Impotence. intolerable. You have failed us." The omnipotent voice boomed.

"Your orders?" The collector asks, his voice stern in spite of the Reaper's Voice.

"Activate the Hashvesks. Test the completed manipulation of this pathetic planet's core."

"We will, at the expense of our ship if need be."

"Our Arrival will prove whether our investment in you will be merited." The hologram of the Reaper disappeared leaving the Collector by himself in the room.

* * *

The cheering was constant; the men and woman that made up the crew of the Normandy were in tears. The Alliance had finally come to their aide; saving them from an almost total defeat.

"We aren't done here yet Ladies and Gentlemen! Save your cheers until we hit the ships and make it pass the Relay!" Shepard exclaimed. Subsequent to Shepard's exclamation, a V-112 VTOL Drop ship aircraft was being dispatched and en-route to get the surviving Normandy to safety inside the Frigate orbiting above the Troposphere of the Planet.

A loud speaker, its crackling an intermittent annoyance, beheld a voice to communicate with the hijacked collector gunship.

"This is Flight Lieutenant Jason Gonzalez of the 231st Joint Force of the Columbian Fleet. We're here to get you the hell out of here. Our fighters are intercepting the collectors. Land in a safe spot so we can transfer you to safety. Over."

"You heard Gonzalez, Tali! Get this thing on ground!"

"You got it Shepard! We're moving down now!"

"This is Gonzalez! Belay that! We're reading an unusual tremor on the Planet's surface! The local tectonic plate is shaking on a scale of….past Twelve points…Dear god…"

The entire crew shuffled to the large side exits of the gunship to look down at the surface. The ground was literally moving in….waves; collapsing the mountain ranges into massive pitfalls of rock; cascading down the already crumbling mountains.

"We don't have the luxury of getting to transfer crews! What are we going to do?" Tali yelled as if she was trying to reach Gonzalez.

"Gonzalez to _Gamble of Light,_ over."

"This is _Gamble of Light_, we read you Gonzalez, what do you need?"

"We have no other way of transferring the crew to my VTOL. We need you to come down here and allow them to enter in the docking area of the Frigate. Their ship, uh, from what I see is a CLASS B 4-40 Heavy Transport. Damage is located on, uh, the uh, what seems to be the Stern leading to the shaft of the vehicle. Over."

"Roger, we are on our way. We are sending a request of Reinforcements to the rest of the Columbian Fleet over. Be advised, the Fighters are having a tough time keeping the Collectors busy. Their…their mother ship of sorts is converging on our position. We're going to have to make this fast. Over."

"Copy _Gamble of Light_, out." Gonzalez cursed to himself, the beads of sweat on his forehead glowing from the lights of his HUD screen. He flipped the switch back to his open COM.

"The _Gamble of light _is sending a request for reinforcements. The collectors are converging on our position and our fighters are only letting us borrow only a limited amount of time._ The Gamble of light_ is moving in so you can get picked up. Over."

Gonzalez could see the Normandy crew getting shaken with his announcement. A saw toothed beep whined at him focusing his attention to look at his communicator. He pressed the button connecting him back with the _Gamble of Light_.

"_Gamble of Light _to Gonzalez, over."

"This is Gonzalez, what is it, over?"

"Our ETA for reinforcing is approximately one hour. We're contacting _Prosper of Freedom, over_"

"Copy _Gamble of Light_, out." Gonzalez kept listening to the radio.

"_Gamble of Light _to Prosper_ of Freedom, report blackout status over._"

"…."

"_Gamble of Light _to Prosper_ of Freedom, report blackout status over._"

"…."

"_Gamble of Light _to Prosper_ of Freedom, report blackout status over._"

"_Prosper of Freedom _to _Gamble of Light_, radio check, over."

"_Prosper of Freedom_, this is _Gamble of Light_, I read you five by five, over."

"Roger _Gamble of Light_, our blackout status is complete. Disengaging from geosynchronous orbit. Zero Contacts in Vacuum, over."

"We've found the survivors, we need to go to the planet's surface to escort Normandy Crew to safety. Relaying our location, over."

"Wilco _Gamble of Light_. En-route, ETA two minutes."

After the short exchange, the _Gamble of Light _had already nearly reached the Battered crew's position.

"Garrus! Let's go! Into the Docking Deck! Let's go!"

"You got it! Moving!" Garrus bellowed. The badly damaged vehicle mad it's way to the Alliance Frigate, the spurts of smoke almost making it hard to decipher whether or not they're going to fit onto the cockpit properly. Luckily, due to Garrus' competence, they had made it into the cockpit unharmed. The Normandy Crew quickly jumped off, leading with those with free hands to help the wounded and critical to medical.

"Get them to Medical!" Shepard yelled, helping grab one of the wounded to a stretcher. He turned to one of the paramedics and asked: "Do the doctors know how to work on an Asari?"

"Standard procedure sir." He responded quickly, in a hurry to rush the wounded up the elevator. Tali walked up and flanked Shepard's left while Garrus went to his right.

"We need to head upstairs, I'm sure the council and your chain of command would like a debriefing, let's—"Garrus was cut off from the intercom in the Ship.

"Be advised, fighters are disengaging the enemy! The _Prosper of Freedom_ is reporting contacts above the surface of this planet converging on our position."

Gonzalez's ship was landing in the dock, the hatches of the door closing behind him.

Shepard turned his attention to his remaining crew.

"Suit up ladies in gentlemen. Assume positions that are similar to your field, but do not get in the way!" He faced his combat team "Gear up. We need to prepare for the worst. Let's go." He clapped his hands before shuffling his way to the stairs before being grabbed by Tali's hand. The others around them continued moving past them, heading up to the armory.

"We didn't get time to talk Shepard…" Tali said hoarsely. She didn't notice the bags under his eyes; the dirt crusting his arms, face, and hands. He looked really bad.

"No, we didn't. But we will have plenty of time when this is all over Tali. I promise you that." With a smile, he quickly embraced her before directing his attention to the Armory station. She looked down, leaving the thread of what could barely pass as an exchange to fall to the floor. Her posture exposed the fragile state of mind that she held during their traumatizing journey to save her most beloved family of the Normandy.

"Yes, I hope so Shepard." She muttered.

"We are moving up out of the atmosphere. Brace for acceleration." The static from the speaker was potent enough for it to be hard to hear. "_The Prosper of Freedom_ is currently being engaged by enemy reinforcements."

A Virtual Intelligence accompanied the human voice over the intercom

"Planet surface is venting magma into the atmosphere. Seismic activity is disintegrating the planet's crust. Possible damage radius: 24,000 miles. Advise to escape vicinity to avoid Collateral damage."

"What the hell is happening to the planet?" Tali whispered under her breath. It had to be the meteorites passing through the planet's surface. There wasn't much time to dwell on it though, she had to get prepped and head to engineering to help the crew of the _Gamble of Light_.

The intercom squawked again, mistakenly capturing the pilot's voice.

"The collectors are in field of fire! Their charging their weapon manifolds! Evade! Evade!"

Tali grabbed onto the nearest railing and cautiously eyed her surroundings, her pupils darting every which way direction to get a hold on what was going on. The docking bay was bustling with activity: paramedics attending to the wounded, engineers skimping by to make needed adjustments to the ship…Almost as bad as home when the filters malfunction…

She pushed herself from the rail and made her way upstairs, noticing that the ship was now vibrating violently.

"Be advised! We are taking fire from the Collector Cruiser! We're moving!"

The VI added to the pilot's distressed response: "We have lost contact with _Prosper of Freedom, _Communication has been severed. We are currently being jammed."

She was wasting time; she pushed herself harder to an almost near sprint to engineering. Wasting seconds here was another second to keeping themselves exposed to the collectors.

* * *

"We're heading back down after this." Shepard stated flatly after locking the final mechanism on his armor. "The likelihood of us getting out of this situation is slim. The closest form of reinforcing is still twenty to thirty minutes away. We've lost contact with _Prosper of Freedom_, and we're being intercepted by a cruiser. I want us ready to evacuate if need be, they already have a full crew operating things the best they can. We'll just get in the way of that. So, that means we will be the evacuation team to help people in the escape pods if need be. Copy?"

His combat team responded in unison; their echoes reverberating off the armory walls.

"Garrus, Wrex, you're Alpha-two. Stacker, Wallace, you're Alpha-three. Heathers, you're with me. We're Alpha-one. Get to your respective levels and prep the Evacuation pods."

Responses were given, and they departed. As everyone left, Shepard glanced at the port window.

Ullipses is burning; the magma from the core spewing volcanic rock and liquid into the vacuum of space, almost dangerously close to the frigate. He always hated being in space ships in the midst of battle due to lack of ability to contribute to anything. He scoffed silently before heading back down to the docks.

By now, Joker had refused to receive treatment and diagnostics to his body, insisting that he make his way to the command deck. After a berating comment from the doctor, he left to make himself useful on the upper deck. He assumed the position of co-pilot to help assist.

"I'm relieving you of duty Flight Lieutenant." Joker stated firmly looking over the pilots shoulder.

"Were the same rank!" The opposing pilot said, keeping his focus on flying.

"Your damp shirt says otherwise. Get up."

"Fine, sit in the co-pilot Seat; I'll let you control it from there."

"You got it!" Joker snickered.

Joker looked outside and saw the _Progress of Freedom_ emitting flares to communicate with them.

"Look, their telling us their disengaging and retreating from their battle. Smoke is emitting from their starboard side."

A violent shock sent Joker to a haze when a sickly yellow beam penetrated up through the floor of the command deck exposing the crew to vacuum. Some of the crewmembers unfortunate enough to be next to the blast were sucked into the open bulkhead killing them instantly by the sheer force of suction. The ion particle beam had penetrated through the floor of the command deck, meaning that the floors bellow it had been breached as well. The power fluctuated dangerously low, causing the lights to flicker and dim; earning worried glances from the crew as to whether the ship would wake up again.

The engineering crew was, luckily, more than competent to reengage the power to back up systems in less than 5 seconds, earning a sigh of relief as the lights shimmered back with power. But another problem would take much longer than reengaging the power; at that was the failure of life support.

"We aren't going to make it! Oh god!" The pilot bellowed, earning him a scoff from Joker.

Joker ignited the SOS flares signifying mayday to the _Progress of Freedom. _ Despite the failure in life support, Joker pushed the engines to maximum, pushing the ship to its damaged limit.

"Fire backward defense weapons Damnit!" Joker yelled over the Intercom. "Get those fires out! We can still make it! Move!"

The VI spoke afterwards: "We are now within safe distance from the planet. ETA to Mass Relay: 15 minutes on current course. Engine 2 and 4 are inoperable. Life Support reserves activating."

* * *

Shepard stared dangerously at the gaping hole at the bottom of the deck, his eyes looking through the expanse of space; the blue film covering and distorting the image of vacuum.

"Take out those electrical fires! Let's move Heathers!" Shepard yelled above the heavy ambience of the deck. He continued to spray the fires with his extinguisher while other crew members joined in.

"Those defense weapons aren't going to feed themselves! Reload them!" The caommnder pointed, capturing the attention of a young soldier who stuttered at the commander's over before running back to the guns and began loading them.

"You!" Shepard yelled, "Aren't you point defense? Your patch sure as hell says so! Move!" Shepard pushed at her back and she ran to help her fellow soldier.

"Heathers! Heathers! I've got the fires! Prep those evac pods!" Shepard screamed to her. She nodded diligently before an explosion ripped through the docking deck door, instantly enveloping those close to the blast in flames and shrapnel. Succeeding the blast, the sheer force of vacuum gripped those unbolted to the floor. Shepard could hear screams of men and woman being thrown into space, following with his own scream of doom.

* * *

"Docking deck has been breached! We can't seal it!" Joker pounded his fists on the armchair, knowing full well they had lost over twenty people in the room.

"Reinforcements are just ten minutes away!" the opposite pilot of Joker exclaimed, his sweat matted hair getting into his face as he yelled gleefully.

"We need reinforcements now!" Joker yelled, his eyes focused on evading direct fire from the Collector ship.

"_Progress of Freedom _is having just as hard of a time as we are!" a diagnostics person yelled. As he said so, their allied ship exploded from a direct hit from two of the cruisers that followed them.

"Oh shit!" Joker winced, looking away from the bright light.

"Prep the crew to get in the escape pods! Move!" A pilot yelled unstrapping himself from the seat. Joker responded and pressed the button that sounded the alarm for manning the call for Evacuation.

* * *

They wouldn't allow her to help telling her that they already had the maximum amount of people working. She instead, helped extinguish the fires that littered the engineering deck. In the middle of her duties, she saw the red glow of a sign that flashed rapidly telling her to man an evacuation pod. Extinguishing the last fire that had blocked an exit, she dropped her fire canister and ran to find Shepard. She _would not_ leave without him. She activated her suits COM unit and called to everyone.

"Where is Shepard?"

"Tali…I'm so sorry…Shepard was in the Docking Deck when they lost cabin pressure." Wrex Responded with devastation in his voice.

The response had hit Tali with such an immense force; she had to lean on the railing from making her fall over. "I understand." She muttered, her fear bitten voice trembling to lose all hope in getting off this ship. She terminated the COM unit and straightened up, her hands curling into tight fists. "This is not how Shepard would want me to act in a situation like this" she whispered and turned to face the slow flow of people running to escape pods.

"Let's go! We can still get out of here! Let's go!" She yelled whilst jogging down the corridor to escape the turmoil.

"Reinforcements! There…..The….here!..." The intercom squawked, its half melted plate protecting the speaker still emitting Joker's screams. She met up with Stacker and Wallace, and with a nod of her head, she jumped into the seat of the pods seat and locked herself in. She put her head back and rested.

Life seemed _pointless_ now.

After filling an entire pod of people, the small ship ejected from the Frigate to a safe distance. The men and woman of the pod looked silently at the burning ship while the Collector cruiser retreated from sight, as it saw the Columbian Fleet reinforcements arrived. Soon after their pod ejected, they saw the many others evac pods fly away. In the final stages of the Frigates life, _The Gamble of Light_ had exploded into an uneventful haze of lights. Most of the crew in the pod looked away, their faces stricken with fear, sweat, and tears.

"This is the end." Tali said sorrowfully. "This is it."

She buried her head in her hands while she shed tears.

**CHAPTER 16**

**2/22/2184**

**Location: Citadel**

Almost absent-mindedly, Garrus thumbed his fingers together, twiddling them in his lap, looking up at the eulogy of the men and woman lost in the search for Shepard's team. The artificial sun beat down on them, the real UV radiation almost making him uncomfortable in his black suit. Others were dressed in suits with the exception of Wrex, who's tradition was to wear cleaned armor instead. Even Tali had draped black clothing around her body to signify the saddening day. He felt secluded and unfounded. Everything was ripping apart. His family, his life, even meaning maybe. Everyone felt that way.

Tali looked up to the podium of Captain Anderson giving a speech with bitten sobs. Never had she seen someone with so much composure break at such a moment like this. It was heart-throbbingly painful to see; making her crumbling feelings of hurt worse.

She had already thrashed and screamed at the ugliness of the world, screaming at anything she could muster to say at the walls that surrounded her in the hotel complex. She didn't have the energy to do anything but sleep and sit. Depression, she felt, had welcomed her with open arms. Liara, who had still been bandaged from her wounds, put a comforting hand on the Quarian's hand and shoulder, bringing her in close in an attempt to soothe feelings with physical proximity. She was hardly paying attention to the ceremony, how could she? Mustering only a grumble, she leaned forward in such a way to be closer to Liara.

"Keelah Se'lai, Shepard. You shall remain with me for the rest of my years." She muttered with uneasiness. Denial was the worst, for she had hoped for nearly a month that he would come back just like he did at the Battle of the Citadel.

Her glowing eyes, unwavering, finally closed, leaving a blank unremarkable visor to completely subdue her already limited features.


	21. Epilogue

**Epilogue:**

**Date: 12/8/2183**

**Location: The Vacuum of Space.**

* * *

Shepard wheezed slowly, noticing that his oxygen reserves would only last a few more minutes. One of the worst ways I've every wanted to go, he mused to himself. He had, after being sucked through the breach of the frigate, made it his sole objective to survive for as long as he could. The ship Gonzalez had attempted to rescue his crew with had also made it into the expanse of space, earning the smile from Shepard that maybe there was hope after all. When he had used his space suits air-compressing jets to heave him into the ship, he had found out, much to his dismay, was out of commission from the ion cannon's blast. It looked as if he was doomed, and he knew it. Regardless, he climbed into the ship anyways and closed the hatch behind him.

"This is it." Shepard sighed. He then remembered the last thing he had said to Tali: 'We will have plenty of time to talk.' And upon realizing that he will never get to talk to her again, he began to sob, cursing himself for making a promise he'd never get to fulfill.

Realizing his sobbing had wasted the majority of his oxygen, he remembered that his omni-_tool was still operational and working. Quickly turning it on, he began recording a message:_

_A Sharp inhale was heard. _

"_Commander John Shepard, Captain of the SSV Normandy, Log 843." Another sharp inhale. "I decided to record this message in the event that someone does eventually discover my remains." _

_He gasps for air now. _

"_I am directing this to my entire Normandy crew." Some metal grating can be heard in the background as his breath becomes thin_

"_Thank you...Your Sacrifice and unshakable spirit will always remain in your heart and soul. It was an honor to stand side-by side with my crew, to lead, to fight, and cherish. _

_He chokes violently. _

"_I don't have much time…"_

"Tali…you have given me so much to look forward to in my life…I'm so sorry I won't be joining you in the end…and I'm sorry I won't be able to fulfill any of my promises." A slight sob escapes from his lips as he continues.

"Thank you, Tali…for everything…You live happy, long, and well…okay?" His voice weakens.

"Everything will work out in the end, Tali…take my word for it…for my sake…you must move on…"

Another raspy grasp for air.

"Don't you let me down…God do I regret not letting you know how I felt earlier…Tali…I'm so sorry this is how it ends...Tali…I lov—" _A loud high pitched alarm had interrupted Shepard mid-sentence, warning him that Oxygen asphyxiation was beginning to task his brain to capacity. He choked dangerously, straining to say his last dying words._

"_Ta…I…" _

His eyes closed, his muscles relaxing for the final time.

* * *

So this is it…I'm finally done with MED:TVOL.

However, it isn't actually done...

I'm going to now continue into the Second book! I have to. Because I need to get rolling. I only got like…a couple months before ME3 comes out!

Although…it kind of makes me sad that the story of Shepard is ending...meaning that all of them will finally fade away with time…

But, we shouldn't think like that…at least not me.

So.

I hope the second one is going to be better, and I really do need some assistance…

I WILL be making the story and explain what happens, mainly from Tali's perspective', for the next two years.

I hope you look forward for more!

I need to come up with another title for the second book…

Thank you all. It has been a wondrous adventure. And as I depart off this story, I will starting a new one from where this left off. (:


	22. AN!

I'm making a note here. This story is now, and officially, out dated!

Next week I will be posting the new remastered edition!


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